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RORC Cowes – Cherbourg race 5th September
Sigress wins class in final race of season.
The final race of the RORC 2003 season
began from the RYS Line at 18:30 on Friday 5th September with IRC 3 combined
with IRC2, with the larger boats following in another combined start 10
minutes later. The course took the fleet west out of the Solent on the ebb
tide to leave the Needles Fairway Buoy to port and to cross the channel to
the Fort de l’Ouest. This mark, on Cherbourg’s outer harbour wall, was
passed to port, and then on to the finish line in the outer harbour, giving
a total distance of approximately 75 miles.
The weather was as forecast, giving us a
fine reach on port tack through the Solent, a beat down the Needles channel,
and then a fine reach on starboard tack across the Channel. This provided
fairly straightforward sailing, the key strategy being to focus on
maximising boat speed whilst not sailing too far off the wind.
At the end of the race the wind backed and
went light, requiring Sigress to make a final tack to the west. The sight
ahead on closing the Fort de l’Ouest in the early hours off Saturday morning
was enough to stimulate even the most tired sailor after the somewhat
uncomfortable cross-seas overnight passage. Sigress just managed to squeeze
in front of Spirit of Defiance and Cas, and some five minutes in front of
Boozeroo. Mavis III was a few boat lengths in front, and Euphorix, the
leading Sigma 38 a further minute ahead of her (As has been the case on a
few occasions this year, the Sigma 33s have done well sailing amongst the
‘38s, sometimes even beating them on the water). Having sailed all season
with them, all these boats and their TCFs were very familiar to us, and we
knew the finish would be close on corrected times. Sigress sailed
nail-bitingly close to the outer wall at the harbour entrance and squeezed
over the underwater rocks. Spirit followed and was not so lucky, touching
them briefly.
The final half-mile to the finish was
equally demanding on concentration in the light airs, and straight after the
finish the calculators came out to compute results.
Sigress came first, beating the ‘IRC
optimised’ sigma33, Boozeroo, into second by 25 seconds on corrected time
and giving Spirit third place.
The drinking started on arrival in the
marina at about 9a.m, followed by the prize giving and canapé party, and a
great lunch in town. Even after a substantial siesta, the return trip gave
some reason to regret the earlier festivities! Fortunately for the party
animals, the wind went light in the small hours, allowing a return to Hamble
early Sunday Morning.
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