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Some heated debate on the Commodore's Cup, sailor classifications and Graham Dalton's qualification

David Scanlan, whose Beneteau 40.7 Fandango was part of the third placed England Red team had these comments to make:

What do you think of Morty's views? Not a lot! Having enjoyed a very close (but sometimes not close enough view) of Gery and the Courier Nord crew, I suspect they would have won the CC even in Mandrake. As it happens the IMX 40 caravan goes particularily well in the light. As a fully paid up member of the caravan club, I enjoyed receiving encouragement from a Kerr owner who told me that their boats would be sailing along nicely in light airs long after mine had choked to a stop. This chap was eating his hat after we repeatedly arrived at the windward mark in front of many of the thoroughbreds, including his!

The Race officer did a fantastic job given the very difficult conditions. Of course some conditions favoured different styles of boat. On the two races that we believed we sailed Fandango as well as we possibly could we were 15th and 16th, surely all boats are a compromise.

The race and club officials receive so much comment and outside influence from vested interests, attempting to dictate the nature and location for races it may not be surprising that they occasionally choose to go East. This is the second time this season that I have seen these sort of comments . The owner of Fastwave 2 had a letter published in Yachts and Yachting earlier in the season refering to the fact that his boat was faster than mine and that had there been a discard in the Easter Challenge he would have won and not Fandango - of course he would have beaten us in the CC (under the Spanish Flag as 1906) if there had been eight discards!

When they publish the notice of race and race instructions surely that is the time to decide whether it is the right event for your boat otherwise people might take those comments as sour grapes, particularily if you had missed the entry deadline and had moved heaven and earth to get your team on to the start line in the first place.

I agree that the prize givings were awful, and we were disappointed not to receive something for our first on the opening race, (nothing to do with handicap this one but down to going the right way off the start line) The beer tent was awful as well.

Does Mr Farr have time to produce an IMS 600 design?

Just for the record Fandango was overall 4th boat in the CC and top UK team boat ,the next 40.7 was 25th, I am pleased to hear that all of that practice and coaching from Mike Richards, our truly amateur crew status apart from Roger Cerrato of Banks Sails, the team spirit from a long standing drinking crew, our in depth research of tidal and wind information - all of these things had nothing to do with our success. It was all down to an old caravan and dodgy race management. Thanks P.S. I was only joking about Mandrake winning - as a Caravan owner I know a BUS when I see one!!!!

Sir Peter Johnson, author, publisher, sailor, rules expert and much more, had these observation to make:

Well done madfor sailing on its interview with Morty and his extensive and numerous comments on the recently completed Commodores' Cup series. Not all will agree with every point made, but the Royal Ocean Racing Club must surely take note of his many knowledgeable remarks.

One can perhaps add some wider or, at any rate, different aspects. No one doubts that this was an enjoyable and worthwhile IRC regatta, albeit one of a number around the world including the King's Cup, Malta Week, Les Voiles de St Tropez, Ramsgate Week, Cork and Australian fixtures. The RORC, for some reason, seems to expect foreign yachtsmen to come to England as teams every single year for either the Admiral's Cup or the Commodores' Cup. This is unreasonable and ill-judged, splitting, as it does, the potential entries. Biennial for one of these is surely enough - and maybe a British team should reciprocate to the Baltic, Mediterranean or North America.

In a separate report you quote Commodore Peter Rutter of RORC as saying "We are very pleased with the number of countries that have [sic] turned up and obviously that's turned into eleven teams Actually this statement as reported does not appear to make sense, but the facts that so please him are as follows. Four nations came - Belgium, France, Ireland, Netherlands - but these are no more than are represented by yachts in what the RORC deigns to refer to as its 'domestic' races: these are the regular seasonal offshore fixtures. The coast of each of these countries is within 260 miles of Cowes! The fifth team nation, Spain (500 miles!) comprised two British boats out of three. It would be more accurate to describe the regatta as 'regional' than 'international' and there is nothing wrong with that.

Most of the other IRC events listed above have comparable multi-nation entries: for instance at Ramsgate from Belgium, France and Netherlands; at the King's Cup from around the shores of south east Asia. There are about ten months until the 2003 Admiral's Cup. The RORC would from now on be well advised to dispense with fudge and spin, which have surrounded the recent series.

Phil Lawrence had the following points to make:

It's always easy to criticise race management with the benefit of hindsight, but what was so frustrating with the Commodores' Cup was that the mistakes were obvious in advance: On several occasions we asked ourselves 'why are they doing this - don't they understand?'

To be fair, this was always going to be a difficult regatta to pull off successfully, with forecast light winds, strong tides, a huge range of boat performance and depth constraints for the Farr 52s. To overcome these challenges RORC needed to show real flexibility and imagination and unfortunately they came up short; On several occasions it would have been better to have held the fleet ashore until the sea breeze filled into the central Solent, or to have sent it to Christchurch Bay, instead of having unsatisfactory tidally dominated courses close to the western Solent shore.

The offshore race was always going to end in tears, with a crazy course full of tidal gates sending the boats back to the East away from the forecast wind. The pointless leg to West Princessa forcing many boats to tack close the the rocks and wreck was particularily ill advised. However, the start of the long inshore race gets the prize for mistake of the series: Foul tide, masses of bias and the inner limit right inshore by the rocks off the Squadron and no restriction on racing through the moored boats in Cowes roads. Not RORC's finest hour! Notwithstanding these gripes, this is a good event with a future: Open it up to club teams not just countries, simplify and be more flexible with the race management, Build up the social side, Consider introducing some rating bands, and keep it under IRC.

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