Sails sagging like damp tweed

With racing abandoned at Skandia Cowes Week, competitors find other ways to spend their time

The unhappy sight for any racing yachtsman - the black and white chequered flag of abandonment - drooped lifelessly from the Royal Yacht Squadron flagstaff this afternoon on day three of Skandia Cowes Week as the wind simply refused to settle in. For the Race Officers on the starting platform it was a heart-breaking decision to have to make after two opening days of superb Solent racing but as the smoke from the three canon shots, signalling the abandonment, lingered along the Parade it was obvious that they had made the right call.

“Obviously we are very sorry to all the competitors but we would much sooner pull the plug now than keep people hanging on or worse still, send them out there in a flicker of a breeze," said Chief Race Officer Malcolm McKeag. "A couple of years ago when we were in this predicament we went from double AP to a single AP, bought ourselves another half an hour and eventually got a day’s racing in. Today though we’ve been told that whatever wind does filter down the race course will die out in the early afternoon so we’re conscious not to send the fleets off down into the western Solent where the breeze will shut off and create a thoroughly miserable day of racing against the tides. We did have the option to abandon the inshore White Group fleets and try to get the bigger boats away, although that always strikes me as a little unfair, but even for the bigger boats there was very little steady breeze for them to sail in. It’s a shame but there’s nothing we can do when the wind doesn’t play ball.”

All morning the winds right across the Solent threatened to fill but never materialised as many competitors chose to stay shoreside. Those that ventured out found a fast running ebb tide drifting the boats westwards as lifeless sails sagged like damp tweed on a washing line. A few rain spots added insult to injury with the mainland shore gripped by heavy dark cloud cover that even the early August sunshine couldn’t disperse.

Triple Olympic medallist Ben Ainslie who this year is fulfilling sponsorship commitments at Skandia Cowes Week in Class 1 IRC was typically circumspect about today’s cancellation: “It was a bit disappointing as myself and the crew were really looking forward to another great day of sailing but there’s nothing you can do when the wind doesn’t fill. I think the Race Committee definitely made the right decision as there are a lot of classes here at Skandia Cowes Week and they have to consider everyone.” Ben’s comments were echoed by XOD sailor Mark Jardine who was concerned about the potential quality of racing had the starting sequence been started. “Skandia Cowes Week is a long regatta with plenty of races so there’s just no point in sending the fleets out on light, fluky courses where the element of luck is the only factor. I believe the Race Committee made the right decision at the right time.”



Cowes stalwarts Karren May, Trish Jenkins and Olympic medallist Shirley Robertson celebrate 20 years of Cowes Radio's mustachioed ones Dick Johnson and Steve Ancsell

Both on the water and shoreside, competitors and spectators alike were kept amused by the continual excellent coverage of Cowes Radio 106.2 FM whose commentators Simon Vigar and Dick Johnson grappled for story leads in this, their celebratory 20th year of broadcasting at the regatta. Amazingly the team kept their patter up throughout the day, broadcasting over the FM frequency and the internet allowing listeners as far away as Australia, the USA and even Thailand to sample the flavour of Skandia Cowes Week. One high-point of the morning saw a Harrier Jump-Jet of the Royal Navy’s newly de-commissioned aircraft-carrier, HMS Invincible, buzzing the Squadron twice at an astounding rate of knots. Unfortunately for the sailors though, the winds failed to record the required knots needed to start although a brief glimmer of hope of a recorded wind at Lymington of 4 knots kept the Race Officers from making their final decision until a little after 12.40pm.

There was, of course, a huge upside to the day with the town of Cowes filling to near capacity as the 8,000 sailors of the record-breaking 1,036 boats, joined around 10,000 spectators to lend a real party atmosphere to Skandia Cowes Week. Today was a great chance for competitors to bond shoreside and many took the opportunity to socialise, filling the beer tents and bars up and down the high street with brisk business being reported.

The outlook for the rest of the week looks promising with sea-breezes forecasted as a ridge of high pressure moves across the English Channel heralding some clearer skies, sunshine and great sailing weather. Most of the competitors today, however, were living by the old adage that “a bad day on the water, still beats a good day in the office!”

“Today was one of those things, unfortunately we can’t make it windy and I think that if we sent competitors off today they wouldn’t thank us for it at all as they would simply drift downtide and then be forced to kedge and wait for the tide to turn," Skandia Cowes Week Race Director, Stuart Quarrie. "Today’s race is abandoned and we don’t re-sail any races as there’s just no way we can get two races a day with 38 classes and over a thousand boats - that just isn’t feasible! Now, presuming that we get the rest of the week’s racing in, the regatta will consist of just seven races possible to count. As far as the discard situation is concerned, each of the classes decides themselves how many discards they want in their series so it’s a case of looking in the sailing instructions at Section F where everything is explained class by class.”

Meteorologist Chris Tibbs gave his take on the forthcoming weather: “We’ve got high pressure to the west as the low has gone away to the east. We had a thundery trough to the north of us which has produced some fairly heavy showers on the mainland and the wind today was due to go around very gently to the south west and I think by about 3 or 4 o’clock this afternoon we will have a light south westerly breeze but too light and too late to get the racing in today. Tomorrow is looking better with a ridge of high pressure to the south of us giving a light south-westerly in the morning which should build into the afternoon and produce a reasonable breeze. There’s a bit of front developing that should cross by Wednesday and after that’s gone through we should see westerly winds through to the end of the week. I’m expecting a Force 3-4 tomorrow afternoon and something similar for the rest of the week with slightly better sunshine which should give more wind as it stirs everything up to produce sea breezes.”