Not so extreme

Andy Rice reports from a very light International 14 Prince of Wales Cup

Archie Massey and George Nurton won the Prince of Wales Week held during a blazingly hot but frustratingly windless week in Poole. Sailing their new Bieker 5, George 1st, Massey and Nurton demonstrated huge bursts of speed in the predominantly sub-trapezing conditions.

While the Parkstone Yacht Club race committee attempted to hold racing out in Poole Bay, there was a complete lack of wind out to sea while inside Poole Harbour there was at least a sailable breeze. So races one and two of the regatta took place in enclosed waters. Despite ongoing teething problems aboard George 1 st, with Nurton frequently spending his time with the head in the bottom of the boat fixing breakages, Massey helmed his black-hulled, Batt-sailed Bieker 5 to two straight wins. Newcomers to the class Ian Turnbull and Adam Ovington had the next best scores, showing good speed with a Bieker 4 and Selden/Hyde Sails combination to post a second and a fourth on the first day.

One of the peculiarities and longstanding traditions of the International 14 class is that the points races in the Prince of Wales Week are merely the hors d’oeuvres and dessert, whereas the main course is the Prince of Wales Trophy. This is a one-race, winner-takes-all National Championship, and the rules state that it must take place on the open sea, and that once started the race can neither be shortened or abandoned. With the prevailing high pressure system sitting over southern England that week, and in the absence of any sea breeze, the Fourteeners were facing a long and frustrating race in Poole Bay.

As the fleet headed out through the narrow entrance of Poole Harbour, however, the wind was building nicely and for the first time that week, sailors could fully straighten their legs, lower themselves on their trapeze adjusters and even ease a bit of mainsheet. The big six-lap race started in a very pleasant force three and the first beat was a test of boatspeed, with Turnbull and Ovington showing good form to round in first place ahead of Mike Lennon and Jonny Blackburn. Lennon was the defending POW Trophy Champion from a windy week in Mounts Bay last year.

The first lap of the course was relatively straightforward, with Lennon squeezing past Turnbull as they rounded on to the second beat. However, some boats further back down the pack bailed out left and picked up a 30-degree shift from heaven. While the leaders were left stranded on the outside of the shift, Ian Pinnell and Pete Bagwell led the ambush up the inside of the wind curve, rounding the second windward mark just ahead of Massey and Nurton. However Pinnell couldn’t hold off Massey for long, who, as the wind dropped to sub-trapezing conditions, moved into a commanding lead.

Then the wind completely disappeared and reshuffled the pack once more. Massey was holding on to his lead by a thread, but European Champions James Fawcett and Dave Dobrijevic had moved into a threatening position. Down a reach – which had now turned into a run due to the massively shifting breeze – Fawcett put in an early gybe and seized the lead from Massey. A lightwind duel ensued for the remainder of this three-and-a-half-hour marathon, but in the end Massey beat Fawcett by a big margin.

Moving up through the fleet during the latter stages of the race were the father and son team of Martin and Neale Jones, who finished third in the big race. Martin first won the POW Trophy in 1981 as a 21-year-old, and now his 15-year-old son had become the youngest ever sailor to qualify for the hallowed Crews’ Union. Any crew that secures a top-six finish in the POW Trophy Race becomes a member, provided they comply with some arcane and secretive Union rules for the term of their natural lives.

Mike Lennon and Jonny Blackburn, having been unceremoniously dumped by that big left-hand windshift earlier in the race, fought their way back up to fourth place but never got close enough to threaten the frontrunners. 49er sailors Tom Smedley and Jonny Clegg borrowed a six-year-old Morrison 10 hull to finish in fifth ahead of a brand new Bieker 5 sailed by boatbuilder Ian Teasdale and Matt Chapman.

In the Classic 14 fleet, James Vaughn and Alastair Wilson sailed Sea Dragon to victory ahead of Phantom, sailed by Brian Willmott and Andrew Hunter.

The following two days of points week racing were wiped out through an utter absence of breeze, but the final Friday came good and allowed a series to be completed. With good trapezing breeze in the Bay, the race officer fired off two races, and in the stronger wind Lennon and Blackburn looked the best combination, racing their M12, Selden/Hyde package to a first and second ahead of Fawcett and Dobrijevic in first and third. Massey and Nurton could not maintain their earlier dominance in the slightly stronger winds but a two, three score on the final day gave them the POW Week by a comfortable margin.

Now these three teams are in the final throes of their preparations for the International 14 World Championships in California at the beginning of September. The surprise speed of Massey and Nurton in the lighter breezes has prompted Fawcett and Dobrijevic to switch their foils to the high-aspect style of daggerboard and rudder being used on George 1 st. The jury remains out on whether Massey can carry his awesome light-air pace up through the wind range, though, and for now the most proven package through all conditions is being sailed by Mike Lennon and Jonny Blackburn. Another likely entrant to the Worlds from the UK is 2003 World Champion Rob Greenhalgh, making a return to high-performance dinghy racing after winning the Volvo Ocean Race aboard ABN AMRO ONE.

Results:

Princes of Wales Trophy Race

1-Archie Massey and George Nurton, (Bieker 5/ CST Mast/ Batt Sails)
2-James Fawcett and Dave Dobrijevic, (Bieker 5/ CST/ Dynamic Sails)
3-Martin Jones and Neale Jones, (Bieker 4/ Selden/ Hyde/P&B Sails)
4-Mike Lennon and Jon Blackburn, (M12/ Selden/ Hyde Sails)
5-Tom Smedley and Jonny Clegg, (Morrison 10/ CST/ Hyde Sails)
6-Ian Teasdale and Matt Chapman, (Bieker 5/ CST/ Batt Sails)

Prince of Wales Week, Points Series

1-Archie Massey and George Nurton, 7 points
2-James Fawcett and Dave Dobrijevic, 12 points
3-Mike Lennon and Jon Blackburn, 13 points
4-Ian Turnbull and Adam Ovington, 15 points
5-Douglas Pattison and Damian Ash, 23 points
6-Matthew Larkin and Sam Pascoe, 34 points