5th of 21 and 1st non local boat at our first Cowes Week!

Last week we competed on ‘Team Baltic’ Baltic Wharf’s J80, with a youth team for our first ever Cowes Week. We were all extremely excited about the prospect and opportunity we had been given and all wanted to make the most of it. And on the first day we did just that, winning our first race out of a 21 strong fleet. On day 2 we were up in the top 5 once again before we went around the wrong buoy due to a missed amendment in the sailing instructions, resulting in a 22 on the scorecard. About as good and as bad as it can get for the first two days racing! On Day 3 we had a strong race once more putting in a respectable 4th. For the first windy day on Day 4, our rig was set up for lighter winds and we really struggled for pace upwind. Even when we rounded the final leeward mark in second place we couldn’t hold it and had a horrible 4 mile beat to the finished resulted in 8 boats passing us, finishing a disappointing 10th.

On day 5 we had a poor start and were playing catch up the whole way round. Due to the procession course reaching back and forth across the Solent we struggled, only being able to make up one place a mark rounding after setting ourselves up for the overtake for the whole leg! We were all delighted to get a 6th in a race that could have gone a lot worse for us. One Day 7 we knew that our boat speed was there and had a great day putting in a 3rd. We were 2nd for most of the race, however a lack of local knowledge of an eddy inshore, much further away from the mark meant our main rival ‘Hoolingkazan’ passed us, giving them a two point advantage in 1st going into the final day. Racing was postponed on the final day and we waited until 0230 for our start, due to a strong tide we were late, but this made little difference as we headed inshore and quickly caught up with the front runners. We headed inshore once more to get out of the tide, however the wind died and frustratingly the rest of the fleet sailed off with nothing we could do. It was the most horrible feeling seeing our regatta sail away from us. We finished 9th in the final race meaning we slipped back from 2nd to 5th overall.

The week was a great experience for us however and many lessons were learnt. We can take a lot from the regatta as our boat speed was consistently good throughout. A few less mistakes could have resulted in a fantastic victory, but it wasn’t meant to be. We look forward to the Jcup now in Torbay, again with our youth team, on the 20th – 22nd August and are looking for our elusive win there!

Overall Results