BRITISH CLASSIC WEEK GETS OFF TO A LIGHT ONE RACE START

Due to the meek forecast, proceedings for the opening day of the British Classic Yacht Club’s British Classic Week - a Concours d’Elegance and a short inshore race, sponsored by Spirit Yachts - were delayed by two hours.

At 1315 the 42 sailing and six motor classics paraded past the Royal Yacht Squadron, from where Jamie Matheson took the salutes from each British Classic Week vessel.

Giovanni Belgrano and the crew of Whooper offer their salute. Photo: Chris Brown

Racing got away off Hill Head at 1450 in a light southeasterly, with the five classes setting off in ascending order, on multi-leg courses, Classes 4 and 5 sailing a shorter course than the bigger classes. Eventually with the prospect of new breeze arriving from the southwest, Race Officer Peter Saxton and his team from the RYS shortened course at the leeward mark.

One of today’s more remarkable performances was that of the oldest competitor at British Classic Week, Ossie Stewart and Damon Roberts’ Dorothy, a gaff-rigged Thames One Rater built in Chatham in 1894, comfortably winning Class 5. Her time corrected out to 1 minute 42 seconds ahead of Andrew Gilmour’s Kim Holman-designed Stella Timea and the Richardson’s SHE 31 Arctic Skua, the first boat fitted out by the Elephant Boatyard in 1969 (and kept in the family ever since).

“We're in quite a heavy old boat and our overall game plan was just to get a clean start and go fast off the start line and tack as few times as possible, which is what we did,” explained Stewart, the 1992 Soling Olympic bronze medallist. “Fortunately, a lot of the boats in our fleet were a bit tied up with each other at the start while we got away cleanly. Then we got into a little bit of breeze and basically pulled away. There was a big shift at the end of the beat, which halved our lead - Arctic Skua got around in front of us, due to that, but we overtook him at a gybe mark and then, because we're longer, we were a bit quicker downwind. The rest of our fleet didn't quite get round the mark before the tide started running, which gave us quite a big gain…”

Dorothy is presently on a roll having won the Royal Yacht Squadron’s IRC Members Regatta outright last week. “We've won four races on the trot now. It is so much fun when you're in such an old boat, as nobody expects it,” concluded Stewart, who acquired Dorothy with Roberts seven years ago, last year winning Classic Boat’s Best Restored under 40-foot boat. “Basically it was too light for us today. We need at least 8 to 10 knots for it to grip, because the keel is only 1.1m, so we go sideways a lot, and we've got a gaff rake, so we can't point very high. But as soon as the wind gets up, she'll get in her own groove, and downwind she just absolutely flies.”

While Class 3 was won by Fenton Burgin’s 1926 Johan Anker-designed 6mR Sioma II by 3 minutes 13 seconds from the Spirit Yachts S30 E Lady Elena with Infanta, Johnny Hall’s 1947-vintage Philip Rhodes yawl third, the biggest winning margin was in Class 1 where well known Dutch offshore racer and Cowes figure Harry J Heijst beat Chris Cecil-Wright’s turboed Nicholson 55 Eager by 4 minutes 18 seconds on corrected time from the German-flagged 1938 12mR Anita, skippered by Bernard Frieling.

Heijst, aged 81, has been campaigning Winsome, a blue-hulled 1972 vintage S&S 41, for around 35 years and says “Winsome’s a fantastic boat – although she’s very strange, because she’s heavy but one of the best winds for her is 10 knots when you have no waves and she can go so nicely through the water.” Heijst admitted that they had some luck today as half of Winsome’s crew is new but this morning’s delay permitted them to get in vital training time.

“We were drifting and had no speed in the beginning,” continued Heijst, who prefers to navigate rather than steer. “Then, all of a sudden it happened. The big boats had bigger trouble when there was no wind and all the time we stayed with them and we passed them in the end.” Boats large and small drift at the same speed.

The Anthony family’s Spirit Yachts 46 Dido with Andrew Haining’s Spirit Vesper 1. Photo: Chris Brown

Topping Class 2 was a Fife 8mR dust-up between Richard Haines’ 1931 Saskia and Mike Fleming’s year older Fulmar, with Saskia prevailing under corrected time by 1 minutes 17 seconds with Cetewayo, David Murrin’s 1957 Laurent Giles design third.

For Haines, this was only his third event in Saskia following the Fife Regatta and Richard Mille Cup earlier this season and his first race in her in the Solent. “We were lucky to get a race in… It was quite a congested start. We were right on the committee boat end. Fulmar dropped away below us and got away and crossed ahead of us. Then we actually got to the windward mark ahead of them and then we had a bit of gybing downwind. It favoured going into the beach on the downwind leg, which we didn't do immediately. After the last kite drop, we had a straight shot to the finish and it seems we made our time on Fulmar.”

Finally Class 4 was won by the closest margin: Malcolm Offord’s Volonte, a Sparkman & Stephens design built in Nice in 1968 beating Claire Locke’s West Solent One Design Enchanted by 52 seconds, with another WSOD third in Tim Yetman’s 1924 vintage Suvretta.

“It was a short race, but it was fun,” commented Offord, from Greenock on the Clyde, this being his seventh season racing on the Solent and his third British Classic Week on Volonte. “We got a good start. We thought it was going to go left, but actually the wind just stayed. So we just stayed on the tack we were on and just managed to come up into the wind while the other guys tacked away to the left and we just kept moving…it was rather nice.

“This event is awesome. We've got five or six S&S designs in our class and it’s nice that we're all together. It's lovely to see all the wooden boats here. You can see the pride that people take in their boats. And they're all beautifully presented and very well sailed. People are careful - there's no bumps and bruises along the way, it's all done in good Corinthian spirit, but it's still competitive.”

Aside from Volonte, Offord also has brought a classic motor yacht and speed boat to Cowes this week and is also an enthusiastic classic car collector.

Tomorrow a long inshore race sponsored by OneSails GBR is scheduled to have a first warning signal at 1125.

James Boyd/British Classic Week