Cowes Week class preview 4

Sian Cowen looks at the hot competition among the sports boats

The growth of the 'sports boat' in the last few years has been rapid and this is probably due to their affordability and because they offer very competitive, exciting racing in both one design and handicap events.

This year at Skandia Life Cowes Week there will be around 120 sports boats careering around Solent waters.

The Bowsprit class, raced under IRC, will have at least 26 J/Boats of various lengths with the exception of Steven Fein's Jo Richards-designed 36 footer Full Pelt. You will also witness the long missed Starsky & Hutch graphics of Chris Dunning's Marionette, a new J/120 that recently won the J Cup and will certainly be one to watch along with Jullian Grindall's J/105 J-Go and Gary Grant's J/120 Alibi, who does very well offshore in RORC.

J/Boat importers Tangent Yachting are very excited as they will be showing off a brand new J/109 Judgement Day(pictured above). It is the first 35ft racer/cruiser designed for the European market and bought straight from the drawing board at London Boat Show by Sue and Nigel Brook. It has an asymmetric spinnaker and it looks fun and fast. Sian Robson and Andy Hind of Tangent Yachting will be hosting a Bowsprit Party at the Island Sailing Club on Wednesday 8th and party-wise this should be one of the highlights of the week.

The Mumm 30s will also have a turn out of 15 boats - an excellent showing since there are only a total of 17 Mumm 30s based in the Solent. They will be racing in their own class so will have a committee boat start as opposed to the normal Squadron start.

The Mumm is a great all-rounder and very competitive. The hot boat to keep an eye on are Darren and Georgie Baker's Mad Cow Hyde who will sailing some days with 49er silver Medallist Ian Barker. Mad Cows sponsors Panasonic Batteries will be watching from a large super yacht. One thing you can't get away from is the enormous corporate potential of Cowes Week which offers the rare opportunity of sailing being quite good spectator viewing. Another boat to watch out for is Simon Shaw's British University Sailing Team, just back from a highly successful Tour de France a la Voile.

Class 9 is a mixed bag including Cork 1720s, J/24s and RS K6s, so will be racing under the Sportsboat rule so should provide good racing and close results. The 1720s in particular are growing more and more popular. Chris Jago who has always raced successfully with his Swan and Etchell 22 in the past is already hot competition after coming fifth in the recent 1720 Nationals on his first time out with Flamboyant. But keep a close eye on Skandia Life which has an all-girls crew but playing with an ace up their sleeve, as Gold Medallist Shirley Robertson will be skippering her.

The fast and furious Melges 24 is certainly one of the most exhilarating of the sports boats, although on the decline these days. It's an efficient racing keelboat that performs like a skiff. With its massive masthead asymmetric spinaker and carbon fibre hull it can plane down waves even in relatively light breezes. In short it is a great performance boat. Eight Melges will be flying around and look out in particular for Rob Smith's Henri - LLoyd Rapid Breathingwho won the Nationals, and Fiver who recently took the John Merricks Trophy also at the Nationals.

Probably the largest fleet to be seen on the water will be the Hunter 707s with a massive 43 boats taking part. They will be racing in their own class with a committee boat start. This will be without doubt the closest racing and you will see the line honours taken by different boats each race.