Who's the greatest!

We look at the form going into Friday's King of Cowes competition

Who is the greatest of them all? Well, the Volkswagen Touareg King of Cowes competition aims to find out this Friday as 27 winning skippers from Skandia Cowes Week 2006 take each other on in a three race shoot out in Laser SB3s – the winner taking home an actual VW Touareg…the second place and actual VW EOS and the third place an actual Laser GXD.

Each class winning skipper from last year has been paired up through a blind draw with an SB3 owner who will sail on the boat and together they bring in extra crew up (one or two) to the weight limit of 270Kgs.

It has produced a fantastic line up of some of Britain’s best and most well known keel boat sailors with an overseas headline team of Kiwi Mike Sanderson (winning skipper in IRC Class O ABN AMRO One) and his crew, Australian Glenn Bourke (CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race, three times Laser World Champion, etc) who will race onboard Chris Darling’s SB3 Darling Associates. One suspects it will be a day that Darling will not forget in a while and we have found out that he has had his boat at David Heritage’s shed in Cowes for a full tickle up, and the new suit of sails has arrived…

In fact there has been lots of tickling-up going on, boats out practicing, new sails purchased, crew recruited/substituted/fired, Lottery styled pre-prize winning contracts drawn up and we hereby present TheDailySail’s form guide. We would take bets - if we were betting people!

Racing is to be run by the Royal Southern Yacht Club’s esteemed PRO Tony Lovell in the central Solent with racing planned to start at 11am. Three races are scheduled with no discards; just one race will constitute a series.

Speaking with Bourke he views the start as one key area where mistakes will be made – an OCS will sink you chances, but you will need to be in the front rank and in clean air to even consider getting to the top mark in reasonable shape. “Speed and a good lane is what you need.” confirmed Bourke, who has his own SB3 Musto. “Speed will come from good driving and a good rig set up. We are seeing quite a lot of rig adjustment going on in the fleet now, and even if it is light airs it makes a big difference to get that right.”

Of his skipper Bourke has only sailed with him once before– a training day in Sanxenxo, before the last Volvo Ocean Race. Despite laying ABN AMRO on her side in the big conditions Sanderson, he says, displayed “no fear”. Bourke however thinks that Sanderson’s strength will perhaps be in the subtleties learnt in the America’s Cup arena – maintaining a good position against the other boats and keeping the boat at full speed.

Getting the spinnaker up and down could be a weakness of the favourites however. Bourke had to do it recently in his own SB3 when his crew damage their ankle and had to steer, while Bourke went to “do the stuff up front”…quite badly.

So, who to pick out next! Russell Peters perhaps? As last years winner of the SB3 class at Skandia Cowes Week he was automatically entered – although he is not allowed in his own boat. He will be sailing David Wilkinson’s Powder Monkey with ace International 14 sailor Zeb Elliot as crew. Elliot is a double world champion in 18 foot skiffs and 14s in the nineties and raced with Lawrie Smith in the Ultra 30 Frontera when Peters’ was helming DBS. No Vicky Peters onboard though – many put his win last year at Cowes down to his wife’s expert Solent navigation and eagerness to clean the bottom of the boat.

Next up, who could be worth a fiver on the nose (better make that a Scottish fiver) are the Budgen brothers, Andy and Ian. Andy is the helm, having won his ticket by winning the Sigma 38 class last year but the two have sailed many years together on Laser 5000 circuit (when it was big during 94-97) before embarking on a 49er campaign until 2000. Andy is in the property lettings business and also a 49er coach, Ian is a professional sailor having sailed with Cup teams and in the last Volvo Race on Paul Cayard’s Pirates of the Caribbean. Both Scots are based in Warsash and will not give up the fight for a new car easily.

Another favourite is 40.7 owner Tim Spalding, winner of IRC3 last year. He is sailing on Mark Richard’s Traxu with crew Chris Hamel. Spalding is on form having recently won the IRC Nationals on a breezy Solent and that’s combined with Hamel’s impressive Foxer National Champion credentials (and past J/24 titles).

Another specialist Solent team is that of Mike Ewart-Smith sailing with joint owner in the J/109 Zelda Ben Richards and Dinghy Sailing Magazine’s Georgie Cortlett. The two chaps very nearly won Black Group overall last year with an impressive string of first places in the 109 failing by just 0.01 point to topple Fair Do’s VII. They know the race area well having both campaigned a Sigma 33 previously.

Fair Do’s VII is being represented by helmsman Ben Cooper. When we spoke with him he was unable to confirm his crew. Ian Moore (ex- Emirates Team New Zealand), who was lined up, recently found out that the King Of Cowes clashed with navigator duties on the TP52 Patches in Copa del Rey. Cooper says that negotiations with the World Match Racing Tour’s Craig Mitchell are ongoing.

Three boats stick out with high-quality specialist SB3 owners onboard. Jerry Hill will be sailing his 3 Sad Old Blokes with IRM winner Kenny McCullough on the helm and skiff sailor Matt Alvardo on crewing duties. McCullough, you may think, will find the step down from his TP52 Panthera a big one, but he has his own SB3 back in Belfast and flew over on the weekend for some practice on the race area.

Current Laser SB3 European Champion Geoff Carveth will be an owner for J/105 winning helm David Apthorp. Some say having Carveth on board is like having another foot of waterline length…we’ll see!



Current Team Touareg badged SB3 is that of Craig Burlton. His helm will be Etchells sailor Graham Bailey who won his 31 strong class in Cowes by a whopping 20 points. In the crew is BBC TV Sports Presenter Gabby Logan – she may know a lot about football and be easy on the eye but we’re racing some very strong teams for a VW Touareg here!

If you fancy putting your money on age and experience then three entries stand out as good investments. The International Dragon fleet is represented by last year’s winner Len Jones sailing onboard Millgate Homes. Jones has with him fellow Dragon sailor Martin Payne and to help them do ‘the asymmetric thing’ highly regarded coach and all-round good sailor Mark Rushall.

Peter Baines has been a legend on the Solent for almost as long as the XOD class has been around. If it’s light and tricky this team on David Atkinson’s More Kit Off is worth a punt. Baines is an ex-America’s Cup sailor, Admiral’s Cup sailor and is joined by keel boat sailor Paul Vernon both win tons of Solent tricks up their woollen sleeves.

Finally, this trio is rounded out by 70 year old Ray Rouse. Rouse won his ticket by winning the Contessa 32 Class and as a younger man walked-the-walk in the International 14 fleet. In 1976 he won the 14’s Prince of Wales Cup – beating eighty two other boats to the prestigious title. He will be sailing with SB3 owner Ben Sturges and crew Mike ‘Jaffa’ Orange.

And so to pick put a couple of black sheep amongst the group. Neither have extensive SB3 experience but…

Alister Richardson won Extreme 40 Class last year helming Basilica. He has since set up his own business called ‘Racing Marine’ prepping and coaching racing teams. Toby Litton’s SB3 has been fully tickled and they plan to practice on Thursday. Richardson is best known as a 49er sailor – he campaigned to Olympic level with Peter Greenhalgh. He is also a former National and European match racing champion. Crewing for him is Dan Johnson – another Greenhalgh link, having won the 18 foot Skiff Worlds with the brothers previously along, with several International 14 European and World Tittles. All up that makes them 45kgs short of the maximum weight limit so they have recruited Rachel Williamson – the Merlin Rocket sailor gets to go if it’s windy!

John Tremlett rounds out our pick of the crop, representing the classic 1934 design from Portsmouth; the Victory Class. Tremlett also has vast experience in keelboats mainly in Stars and Etchells. He now sails a Finn and was fourth at the Finn Nationals this year. His crew is fellow Finn sailor and man from Norths Charlie Cumbley and they will be sailing the Kiddle’s SB3 It’s Playtime.

“Ahh but!” We hear you say, “what about all the others.” That is the secret of this events success is that it is so hard to draw a line and so hard to pick a winner. Who is going to be able to keep their cool when with the VW Touareg there for the taking and they fluff a tack, are in a five way battle on the last leg, or miss the last shift!

All the action on the day will be live on TheDailySail’s special RaceBlog. There is due to be commentary on Cowes Radio, if you have speakers attached, and Traxu are doing live tracking on all boats too.

Event site: http://www.kingofcowes.com
Traxu: http://www.traxu.com/?s=kingofcowes
Cowes Radio: Here

	Helmsman	Class Won	Winning Boat	SB3 Owner/Crew1	Crew2	Crew3
1	Tim Spalding	Beneteau 40.7 & IRC Class 3	Amey Love Shack	Mark Richards	Chris Hamel
2	Alister Richardson	Extreme 40	Basillica	Toby Litton	Dan Johnson	Rachel Williamson
3	Ray Rouse	Contessa 32	Blanco	Benjamin Sturges	Mike Orange
4	Daniel Willett	Sonata	Camel Toe	Joe Henry	Gael Pawson	Simon Farren
5	Peter Baines	X One Design	Caprice	David Atkinson	Paul Vernon
6	Mike Wigmore	Multihull - MOCRA	Triptych	Tim Cork	Mark Tomson
7	Mike Fenwick	National Squib	Ghost Rider	Michael Wood	Emma Clarke	Penny Fenwick
8	David Apthorp	J/105	J-Dream	Geoff Carveth	Matt Adams
9	Ian Braham	Class 6 IRC	Dean & Dyball Enigma	Sandy Baillie Strong	Ben Baxter
10	Dave Dwyer	Class 2 IRC	Mariners Cove	John M Outhwaite	Martin Boatman
11	Len Jones	International Dragon	Rumours	Martin Payne (for Nick Jackson)	Mark Rushall
12	Russell Peters	Laser SB3	Selden Seen	David Wilkinson	Zeb Elliott
13	Tom White	Class 9 ISC	Pizzicato	John Powell	Jonty Sherwill
14	Luke Bradley	Hunter 707	Star Born 3	Luke Wooster	Andrew Yates
15	Michael Ewart-Smith	J/109	Zelda	Georgie Corlett	Ben Richards
16	John Tremlett	Victory	Zinnia	Tom Kiddle	Matthew Kiddle
17	Richard Griffith	Sigma 33	Cerefe	Samantha Cook	Chris Holliman	Sharon Howard
18	Graham Bailey	White Group&  Etchells	Arbitrator	Craig Burlton	Mark Greaves	Gabby Logan
19	Rupert Mander	International Flying Fifteen	Men Behaving Badly	Richard Purssell	Dave Robinson
21	Chris Savage	J/80	Savage Sailing	Matthew Glasgow	Liz Savage
22	Andrew Peters	Prima 38	Serendip	Clare Molloy	Jeraldine Peters	Jono Shelley
23	Glynn Williams	Nautor's Swan Class	Wolf in Sheeps Clothing	Venetia Wingfield	Martin Jones
24	Ben Cooper	Black Group & Class 1 IRC	Fair Do's VII	Daniel Geoghegan	Craig Mitchell
25	Robin Stevenson	J/92 & J-Sprit	Mojo	Danny Brooks	Hywel Roberts
26	Andy Budgen	Sigma 38	The Project	Alec Russell	Ian Budgen
27	Kenny McCullough	IRM	Panthera	Jerry Hill	Matt Alvarado
28	Mike Sanderson	IRC Class 0	ABN AMRO 1	Chris Darling	Glenn Bourke