Blanco invincible

At outset of Contessa 32's Inshore Points Series reports Chris North

The Royal London Yacht Club at Cowes hosted the first weekend of the Contessa 32’s Inshore Points Series over the weekend of 10-11 May - and last year’s Cowes Week and series winner, Blanco picked up where she had left off - with back to back wins.

The Saturday race over a 15nm course in the Central Solent started in light airs from the Royal London line off Cowes. The majority chose to start inshore emerging from the River Medina but the wind was better just offshore and Corafin and Swifan came storming through into an early lead. With a new helm, David Feltham, Corafin's skipper, Robin Holland, must have been delighted.

Blanco as usual found some speed from the inshore position and pipped Corafin to the first mark closely followed by the Class Captain Peter Smith on Swifan. Blanco then had a comfortable ride clear ahead and across the Solent to the mainland shore whilst Corafin and Swifan sailed neck and neck constantly changing positions in a gybing match.

The next beat across to Gurnard was a tidal strategy. Those that went across the main Channel first, picked up the lee bow taking strides out of the remainder of the fleet. John McCann’s Cosantes and John Corden and Anne Merryweather’s Fresh Herring got it right and were soon back in contention. At Gurnard, Fresh Herring had closed up and took the inside at Deck to go past Swifan. Fresh Herring fought closely with Cosantes to the finish - pipping them by 13 seconds at the finish.

Final order 1st Blanco, 2nd Fresh Herring, 3rd Cosantes, 4th Polar Star, 5th Equator.

The Sunday race also started in light airs off the Royal London line, this time to the East and a first turning mark on a 10nm course. The first leg quickly turned into a close spinnaker reach with the fastest hoist quickly rolling over the slower.

While Blanco again quickly established a controlling lead, they were pressed throughout by Fresh Herring, South Haze, Cosantes and Seb Gardner on Polar Star.

In typical Contessa racing style there were close matches throughout the fleet and by the finish, while Blanco and Fresh Herring were first and second again; South Haze was only 23 seconds adrift, Cosantes 4th was only 19 seconds ahead of Polar Star; Ken Mizen’s Blue Shark 6th was only half a minute ahead of Simon Porter’s Equator; and Swifan 8th pipped Chris North’s Andaxi by 11 seconds.

Results

Pos	Boat	Sail	Place	Elapsed Time	Place	Elapsed Time	Cum Points
			Sat Race 1	Race 1	Sun Race 2	Race 2
1	Blanco	682	1	2h50m21s	1	2h09m22s	2
2	Fresh Herring	3278	2	2h55m41s	2	2h11m20s	4
3	Cosantes	2078	3	2h55m54s	4	2h12m13s	7
4	Polar Star	596	4	3h00m20s	5	2h12m32s	9
5	South Haze	5555	7	3h02m30s	3	2h11m53s	10
6	Equator	687	5	3h01m10s	7	2h13m50s	12
7	Swifan	2980	6	3h01m45s	8	2h16m37s	14
8	Blue Shark	334	9	3h06m10s	6	2h13m16s	15
9	Corafin	2958	8	3h03m14s	10	2h17m25s	18
10	Andaxi	701	10	3h09m18s	9	2h14m48s	19
11	Cantata	2983	11	3h14m18s	11	2h30m10s	22