In the bag for Polyphagus

With two races to go it is all settled in the Sigma 38 class at Skandia Life Cowes Week

Stephen Porter's Polyphagus today reaffirmed her lead in the Sigma 38 class at Skandia Life Cowes Week, and is now a clear six points ahead of second placed Prophet.

"We had pretty much won the week yesterday, we simply consolidated it as we can now discard our fourth place," commented Craig Dymouk from Polyphagus.

For a time the team's hopes of claiming their fourth and deciding win looking distant as John Edwards' Red McCaw, again starting clear ahead of the fleet, held a strong lead for a large part of the race. "It was just a case of clawing back their lead," added Dymouk. The Polyphagus team worked hard during the long beat from the east to the western Solent, passing Red McCaw before the final run to the finish.

The Polyphagus crew have sailed consistently well throughout the week, and although failing to shine in the starts, have excelled around the race course: "We kept our number one up round the course, where most sailed with their number twos. This just gave us the necessary speed to push through the fleet on the two sail reaches," commented Dymouk. A similar story has come across throughout the week where meticulous preparation and pre-race planning have won out.

In the Contessa 32 fleet the final results look like they will go to the wire. Last year's winner Blanco is currently on equal points - nine - with the last year's second placed finisher, John Holloway's South Haze. Going in to today's racing Blanco had a single point advantage, and for the majority of the race looked set to extend that lead to two points.

However, while holding a slim advantage over South Haze the Blanco team misjudged the tide and came in to contact with a mark of the course. This was immediately acknowledged by the Blanco crew, which in turn added a one percent penalty to their finish time, dropping them to 50 seconds behind South Haze. The two boats are now leading the rest of the Contessa fleet by nearly twenty points, leaving the remaining days of racing a match race between the two boats.