Barking Mad has bite

The Americans dominate Cowes Week's one design series within a series for the Farr 40s

American Farr 40 Barking Mad made the most successful start to the one design class' series which, uniquely, is running in conjunction with Cowes Week with three races per day, their own short, hour long windward-leeward courses off Hill Head and their own committee boat laid on by the Cowes Combined Club.

Skippered by James Richardson, Barking Mad won all three races today. Over from America last week, they have been training solidly for the last five days in preparation for the regatta and are quite simply a class above the other boats. They showed no sign of their relatively limited knowledge of the Solent, leading the fleet from start to finish. "They always made the best start. Tactically they were very sound," commented Mark Heeley, who to date has dominated the British circuit and is now intent on upping his game to meet the Americans.

Richardson is one of the longest standing owners in the Farr 40 class to the extent that he has two boats. While the likes of Finn Gold Medallist Iain Percy and Sam Davies were sailing with Heeley, Barking Mad's after guard includes Terry Hutchinson formerly of the America's Cup challenger, America One

As with all one design racing, the finishes were still close. Two of the finishes saw the top five boats finishing within a minute of each other. This closeness at the top of the fleet was highlighted by the fact that no other boat finished with all of their results in the top three. Mark Heeley's GBR 25 is the leading British boat, although they are already seven points behind the leader with six races remaining. It is interesting to note that the Farr 40 rules do not allow for a discard, which will make Heeley's challenge to the dominant Americans all the more difficult.

The inclusion of a separate one design fleet within Cowes Week is an interesting call on the part of Cowes Combined Clubs who are clearly keen to prevent Skandia Life Cowes Week from becoming a beer festival with sailing and to promote the serious racing aspect of their event. Whether this will open the floodgates for other one design classes in future years remains to be seen.