Cork Week update

Erivale continues to lead class Zero. We speak to skipper Robert Elliot and to Too Steamy's Nick Haigh

Robert Elliott, skipper of IRC 0 leader Erivale .

"The main dispute was in the IRM group who were about five minutes behind us over the question of whether there was a time limit of not. They gave us a windward-leeward course which would have lasted 3 hours and 20 minutes or not. And then there was some fuss because there is a time limit of 3.5 hours for IRC, but not IRM. And the point is they are trying to accommodate those two big boats on these long courses and it’s just not working, it’s not suiting the range of boats that are in the fleet. So we didn’t get the second race in today."

Elliott has chartered Erivale from Mike Greville and regularly charters boats for regattas such as Mandrake for the King's Cup in 2002 and Jacobite for Cork Week 2002. "we were second in class and that was with more of a family crew on board," Elliott says of the latter regatta.

This time round Elliott has brought on some heavy guns. "We have Tim Powell driving and Gerry Mitchell on the main and Andy Hemmings on trim and then a bunch of gifted amateurs. I’ve done that before and it all comes together very well. The pros bring the best out of the amateurs and vica versa."

Normally Elliott sails his Etchells out of Cowes.

To read our test on the DK46 - click here .


Nick Haigh, co-owner of the modified Farr 40 Too Steamy with wife Annie

Haigh admits he didn't have the best day on the water.

"It was very light going to about 5-6 knots but much lower than that at times. And it was very shifty out there, 20 degree shifts. We got stuffed on the start line by a Mumm 36 who seemed to be pointing higher than us. They forced us over on to the right hand side. We thought the shore was going to be better, but it wasn’t and it turned into a bit of a disaster…"

Their predicament was not helped by the confusion with the Race Organisation.

"There was a lot of confusion on the radio. The committee I think were getting very mixed up between IRC 0, IRC 1 and IRM. There were some very confusing announcements made. At one stage we thought they were shortening it at the end of the first lap, then they actually said we’d complete a third windward leg. But they meant the second leg, so we thought we might be finished up there, but then they carried on and completed the whole two laps. But they also said ‘all boats now to proceed to the committee boat because you are out of time limit.’ At that point if anyone who hadn’t finished on IRM, for which there is no time limit, if they’d dropped their sails and motored in, then there was probably good grounds for chucking the race out.

"Yesterday was much more pleasurable. We were fifth on corrected time. We had a really close race with both 2XL and Minnie the Moocher. We level rate with Minnie the Moocher on 1.044. 2XL we have to beat by 7 seconds in the hour. 2XL got away and Minnie the Moocher ghosted past us by the cathedral where we were becalmed for nearly 20 minutes, which wasn’t good. We had a lead of about half a mile on him at the time"