Three bullets for Morty

Better wind for day two of the Coutts Quarter Ton Cup

The second day of the Coutts Quarter Ton Cup, hosted by the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, Cowes, brought a significant improvement in the weather and a great day's racing was had by all. After a short postponement Race Officer Bob Millner took the fleet west from Cowes and set a course just beyond the Beaulieu River entrance. With a lovely 10-14 knots from the south west the fleet completed three races, two windward leeward and a final round the cans race which took the boats back to finish off Gurnard for a short hope home into Cowes.

With better winds the racing was much closer today and there were interesting battles going on all over the race course as the smaller, slower boats fought to save their time on the big boys.

In this regatta there are quarter tonners built under three different versions of the rating rule racing and it is for this reason that the class now races under IRC to level the playing field. The first Quarter Tonners, launched between 1967 and 1970 were built to the 15ft Rating RORC Rule. From 1971 to 1978 the Quarter Tonners had to meet the 18ft IOR rule and in 1979 the IOR rating for the boats was increased to 18.55ft. The differences in the size and configurations of the boats is part of what makes today's racing in the Quarter Ton revival class so much fun and gives everyone plenty to talk about in the bar afterwards.

After his dramas in yesterday's third race Peter Morton and his Espada crew were on flying form and won all three of today's races. With six races completed the discard comes into play and Espada now leads overall with 8 points. In comparison with yesterday's assured performance overnight leader Catch faltered a little in today's medium airs and finished the day with a 7, 12, 2 scoreline, which leaves her lying second overall on 13 points. Tom Bombadil, owned by Chris Frost and Kevin George with Kevin at the helm, put in a consistent day's racing but their 6, 3, 5 score wasn't quite enough to hang onto second overall and they are now lying in third place on 18 points. Paul Kelsey's Runaway Bus, helmed by Peter Williams, which was equal second with Tom Bombadil, got a good start to the day with a third in race four, but they were only a few yards out from the start in race five when their jib fine tune broke and the jib came down. Although they rapidly repaired the damage they'd lost a lot of ground and could only pull back up into 10th. Finishing the day with an 8th in race six they now lie in fourth overall on 21 points.

This evening the crews are enjoying the Coutts Quarter Ton Cup Gala dinner where world renowned yacht designer Rob Humphries is speaking, reminding the crews of the days when race boat design was an art and not a science. Racing concludes tomorrow when three further races are scheduled with a latest possible start time of 1430.

Top five results

1. GBR50 Espada, Peter Morton, 2, 3, (21), 1, 1, 1 - 8 points
2. GBR502 Catch, Darren Marston, 1,2, 1, 7, (12), 2 - 13 points
3. GBR7278 Tom Bombadil, Chris Frost/Kevin George, 4, 4, 2, (6), 3, 5 - 18 points
4. GBR7055 Runaway Bus, Paul Kelsey, 6,1,3, 3, (10), 8 - 21points
5. GBR9999 ASAP, Christie/Layton/Crawford/Paul, 3, 8, (22), 2, 5, 7 - 25 points

Full results