Red Funnel winners

Solent keelboat sailors awarded in London

Cowes and London-based sailors headed for the Royal Thames Yacht Club on Wednesday evening as the club played host to the prizegiving for the 2004 Red Funnel Cowes Keelboat Championship. Courtesy of Red Funnel, the Cowes contingent enjoyed a full day out as a coach met them at the Red Jet Terminal in Southampton and whisked them to ExCeL for a few hours at the Schroders London Boat Show before delivering them to the Royal Thames clubhouse in Knightsbridge for the evening prizegiving. At the end of the evening, they were delivered back to Southampton in time for the last Red Jet.

The Red Funnel Cowes Keelboat Championship consists of a series of six weekends of racing in The Solent off Cowes, with each weekend run by one of the main yachting clubs including the Royal Yacht Squadron, Royal Thames YC, Royal London YC, Island Sailing Club, Royal Corinthian YC and Cowes Corinthian YC.

Each year it attracts top crews to race in The Solent, the next series will begin in May 2005. The championship series is run by the Solent Cruising and Racing Association, based in Bath Road, Cowes.

The 2004 prize winners were:

International Etchells Class
1 Mayhem (Tim Daughton, Keith Tippelll, Jon Halliday, Charlotte Lamport),
2 Blue Genes (Messrs. Rogers, Lees and Turnage),
3 Best Mate (Chris Torrens and team).

International Dragon Class
1 Caramba (Chris Brittain),
2 Stampede (Neil Payne, Stephen Richardson, Jonathan Mortimer and David Ross),
3 Apalala (Chris Caws).

Daring Class
1 Dauntless (Giles Peckham),
2 Dreamer (Lavinia Perry),
3 Devius (Tony Leech).