Writing on the wall

With a weekend of racing done, The Times' Ed Gorman gives his views on how the Admiral's Cup is panning out

Given its much-publicised troubles and the confused handicap background against which this year's Admiral's Cup is being held, it hardly comes as a surprise that the racing we have seen so far on the Solent has had a pretty weird flavour to it.

For starters the fleet is painfully small with just 16 boats taking part and the impact on the eye is made even less impressive by the race officer's decision not to start the two classes together. This had one unintended consequence on Sunday in particular when cruising yachts of all shapes and sizes invaded the race course, completely unaware that a once-great racing regatta was underway.

In the big boat class the disparity in performance is massive with Robert Oatley's swing-keeled Reichel/Pugh 60, Wild Oats, sailing in a different weather system to the rest of the fleet as she ploughs on in the distance, just like Roy Disney's Pyewacket did at Cork Week a few years ago. But even her huge margins on the water were not enough to save her from the purpose-built IRC cruiser-racer, Bribon Movistar, from Jason Ker's board, which has scored four bullets in a row by coming second on the water each time, comfortably ahead of the Farr 52s despite its recent modifications.

There is precious little boat-on-boat racing in the class, the racing is dull to watch and it is hard to escape the feeling that the IRC handicap is facing an impossible task, trying to meet the challenge of such diversity in form. Already it looks as though the spoils are going to be fought over by the Spanish and the Australians and the other teams in this class are not going to get a look in.

In the IMS 600 fleet, boat selection and handicap influence on outcomes - as opposed to tactical and boathandling skill - is even more critical, with the five crews in the Sinergia 40s being left behind by their three rivals in the faster and newer Rodman 42s. If you talk to the sailors on the slower boats, you sense that some of them are already just going through the motions, knowing they cannot possibly win, certainly in a
windward-leeward format in the Solent.

The only hope for them and for the regatta as a whole is that the offshore races which carry double or quadrupal points, offer genuine tactical options and perhaps the odd park-up to give the slower boats a chance. The other source of hope is big errors by the teams in the faster boats which could see them overtaken by solid performers in less fancied craft. This seems to be the strategy of Peter Harrison's 'A' team who are looking for - and so far achieving - consistent results from their Farr 52 to complement a potentially class-winning contribution by the crew on the Rodman led by Ian Walker and Ben Ainslie.

The flip side is they need the Spanish and the Aussies to make mistakes and the Spanish for one are obliging. Pedro Campos and his crew on the Rodman, Telefonica, have made two bloomers which are costing his team dear and alone account for the fact that the Spanish 'A' team are now lying third overall, rather than first. The first mistake came in race two on Saturday when Campos was over early at the start and had to go back, dropping him to fifth.

But the real howler came in race three - the first race on Sunday - when Campos rounded the windward mark and then came into contact with Andy Beadsworth's Sinergia, Dickies Yacht Sales, which was approaching to windward on port tack. In a potentially very dangerous incident, the Spanish boom on starboard gybe jinked down the weather rail of Beadsworth's boat as the British crew flung themselves back from the rail to avoid being hit.

As one member of Beadsworth's team put it: "It looked from my point of view that the helmsman of their boat lost control of his vessel momentarily because I saw the look of panic in his eyes when he saw what was happening as he spun the wheel." After a certain amount of deliberation, the jury found in favour of Beadsworth and another, and potentially very costly, 10 points was added to the Spanish score.

Old hands at the Admiral's Cup always talk about consistency. You don't have to win races but you have to score consistently in all races and in both your boats. You also have to avoid mistakes. So far the Spanish are beating themselves in the small boat class, rather than being beaten. And by the way, we talk about the 'Spanish' big boat, "leading Spain's bid for a first win in the Admiral's Cup". However it is worth noting that
something like 13 of the 15 people on Bribon Movistar are not Spanish. The King has been there - though he has now gone home for a few days - but the rest are Hamble and Australian mafia plus Eddie Warden Owen.

Other highlights of the championship so far have been the excellent battles between the Australian little boat driven by Colin Beashel with Ado Stead on tactics and Harrison's small boat driven by Ben Ainslie with Ian Walker doing the talking. So far Ben has the edge, but only just and these two are going to go to the wire one suspects over the next few days.

Another highlight has been the impressive performance by Andy Green and his partially disabled crew on Chernikeeff 3. Greeny loves a challenge and being the underdog and he has been throwing in some cheeky starts and then holding his own in the middle of the fleet round the track. The former GBR Challenge starting driver singled out disabled sailors Tim Griffin and Lee Gallagher on the bow and the mast respectively for special praise. He also mentioned in the credit department Paul Campbell-James on mainsheet and the guy he calls his "secret weapon" Mason Woodworth, a former US national
match-racing champion, who is calling the tactics.