By Mal Butler
A long wait was rewarded for Tony Langley, whose TP52 Gladiator beat 34 of the highest rated IRC yachts competing at Cowes Week, to lift the prestigious Britannia Cup on Wednesday.
Blues skies have been a feature of the week so far, but, sadly, a lack of wind on Tuesday and Wednesday morning meant some races were cancelled or delayed.
Tony held off the challenges of Peter Morton (Notorious) and Harmen J De Graf (Baraka GP) to take the line.
It was also Youth Day on Wednesday, with a focus on the participation and achievements of hundreds of young sailors competing in fleets as diverse as Dragons, J/70s, Cape 31s, Contessa 32s and every IRC class. Star teenage sailor, Kai Hockley, 18, from London, fired the gun to start the race and Sir Ben Ainslie has selected him to join the development programme of his sailing teams.
In the Flying 15 Class, Rupert Mander and Gareth Edwards’ Men Behaving Badly scored a fourth consecutive victory ahead of Rob Goddard and Arlo Braund’s Farfallina, with Akarana finishing third only 10 seconds later.
The Victory class, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary, has seen eight boats notch up at least one top four finish so far this week.
Nevertheless, Russell Mead’s Shearwater ll has put in an impressively consistent performance, picking up a third victory, 38 seconds ahead of Jim Downing’s Ziva, while Nick Benham, Ian Perryman and Clive Good’s Zada finished third.
Sadly, racing was abandoned on Tuesday with the short series for both J/70s and SB20s which took place over the first four days of the Regatta, now concluded, with nine of the 12 scheduled races completed.
In the J/70 class 40 per cent of competitors in the 30-strong fleet achieved at least one top five finish. Martin Dent’s Jelvis posted an impressively consistent series of results with a near perfect scoreline, counting seven first places and one second to win the series with nine points.
William Edwards and Ian Dobson’s Sardonyx and Simon Pattison’s Standfast were the only other boats to take a race win. Sardonyx took second place overall on 26 points and Standfast third on 29.
Nico Razmilovic’s Glasgow Kiss scored a similarly emphatic victory in the SB20 Grand Slam. Having been scored OCS in the opening race, he went on to win six races and take second place in the other two, finishing the series on 10 points.
On Tuesday evening large crowds gathered to witness the arrival of the aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth and an exchange of gun salutes with the Royal Yacht Squadron.
Isle of Wight Observer