Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week 2013

CEO Stuart Quarrie brings us up to speed about this year's event

Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week is looming, set ot run over 3-10 August, back to its normal time slot having been displaced by the Olympic Games last year.

So what is new this year? There are a few positive signs in the sports boat arena. Firstly the SB20s are back in force, the class under new management (aka Alan Hillman and Jerry Hill of Sportsboat World) following its separation from Laser. Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week will be the third and last of the SB20’s inaugural Grand Slam tour that started in Hyeres in May and has since visited Malescine on Lake Garda. The final Grand Slam event will take place over the first four days of Cowes Week.

As a departure from the standard Cowes Week format the Grand Slam races will feature two races per day. According to Stuart Quarrie, CEO of Cowes Week, this may be the “thin end of the wedge” as already the J/70 class has asked if they too can sail two races/day and one imagines that there may be more to come if the keener classes follow suit.

In terms of the growth areas, Quarrie says that the Js remain on the ascent in particular the newer J/70 and J/111s, both of whom have their own classes at Cowes Week (along with the perennial J/80 and J/109) with nine and seven entries respectively, although with more expected to enter before kick-off.

Another new development is that Cowes Week has also been selected for the first time as the qualifying event for sportsboats interested in participating in the 2014 EFG Pan American Sport Boat Championship to be held in March in Miami. This event is held in conjunction with the Bacardi Cup and Miami Sailing Week. While the Bacardi Cup is famously a Star boat event, the burgeoning sportsboat classes in the USA joined in the fun four years ago, a move instigated by the Viper 640 class with backing from EFG International. Last year over 70 teams participated in qualifying events and over 40 came to the final event from Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda, USA, South America, Caribbean, UK, Netherlands, and Canada. The winner of the Pan American Trophy last year was the British Team, Fer De Lance skippered by Yarmouth's own Glyn Locke.

“The EFG Pan American Sport Boat Championship series is a fantastic event,” said Locke. “March on Biscayne Bay in Miami, is a sailing experience that's hard to beat. After a cold UK winter, it really does not get much better than racing Vipers on an azure sea, under clear blue Florida skies. “

Teams that participate in the qualifying round in the Sportsboat class this August in Cowes will carry their finishing score on to the final in Miami and the tio team at Cowes Week with an amateur driver will be offered the free use of a brand new Viper 640 with sails next spring in Miami. There are already 17 eligible boats within the Sportsboat class signed up to race.

Meanwhile classes on the wane are probably the Sigma 33s and 38s. “They are getting quite long in the tooth now and their numbers are going down," admits Quarrie. "There are still loads of them around, but most of them are cruising. One thing we hope is that the taster day on the final Saturday might get some more of those back under their new owners who have furling headsails, etc.”

Cowes Week is attempting to grow its numbers by attracting more cruiser racers, or the boats and crews for whom traditionally their only competitive outing of the year is the JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race. Interested parties are being invited to gain a taste of Cowes Week by competing only on the final Saturday. For these races Stuart Quarrie says there will be a cut-down set of SIs and the course laying will be simpler.

Bring on the big boats

Obviously having an increasingly significant bearing on Cowes Week is the ever swelling fleets competing in the RORC’s Rolex Fastnet Race. With an entry list approaching a record breaking 380, this has attracted some of the world’s top race boats and the Cowes Week team is laying on racing for any that want to come play over the Tuesday to the Thursday of their event. Cowes Week's Big Boat Series is open to yacht with IRC TCCs of 1.4 and over (ie 60ft+ LOA) and entered so far are two VO70s including the Ian Walker-skipper Abu Dhabi entry, plus the Mini Maxis Ran and Bella Mente plus the mysterious new Botin Partners IRC 65 Caro (with the likes of Stu Bannatyne, Tom Addis and Richard Bouzaid on board) and the 100ft Esimit Europa 2.

“As usual what we have talked to the owners or skippers of the big boats who are coming to do the Fastnet," says Quarrie. "The Tuesday to Thursday format suits them and what they and the slightly smaller boats, like the TP52s, really want is some longer leg courses. So for those three days we’ll amalgamate the top end of the other IRC fleet and the really big boats.”

Quarrie says that these longer courses will probably include a race around the island one day and another where the boats might be sent down to Poole or towards Weymouth or in the opposite direction to the Nab Tower and back. “The sort of courses where the legs are long enough where they can get speed build practice rather than just round the cans.” All in the name of practice for the Rolex Fastnet Race.

Line division

After attempting to separate the start lines last year, so this is to occur in a more dramatic fashion for 2013.

“It won’t make a lot of difference compared to last year except it is completely divorced from the Royal Yacht Squadron line,” says Quarrie.

“One of the problems we had last year when we separated the lines was that although we had a committee boat and an outer distance marker (ODM) for the big boats, it was almost in the same position as before so they could all see the lights from the Squadron – so it was a bit confusing...’was it the transit or was it the ODM?’ The sailing instructions were clear, but there was some confusion. So moving it 400-500m east will take any confusion away, and it also gets the pre-start area away from the entrance to Southampton Water and it means we’ll be able to leave the line there as a finish line.” 

There have been no further repercussions for Cowes Week following the much publicised collision between the yacht crewed by Royal Navy officers (who should have known better) and a tanker on the opening day of Cowes Week two years ago that caused the yacht to dismast after its rigging was ensnared by the ship’s anchor. The yacht’s skipper Roland Wilson has been accused by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) on three counts of negligence and the case is set to go to trial in October at Southampton Magitrates Court.

Partly because of this incident, Cowes Week’s organisers introduced several new measures for last year’s event including the publication of a new safety booklet and a safety video, particularly highlighting the mandatory exclusion zone ahead of large ships navigating the confined channel in the Solent.

“We are now providing ABP [Associated British Ports] with Outrider-type RIBs to support their patrol boat when a big ship comes through. So rather than the patrol boat having to deal with a whole bunch of racing yacht, the RIBs can deal with most of them and the patrol boat can remain on station. So subtle changes that we have worked out along with ABP to introduce.”

The Southampton Water pilots who generous give up their time to come to Cowes and help the organisers with laying on racing around ships arrivals into and departures from Southampton Water are also giving up more of their time. “That is really good for us, and that means when ships are coming through later in the day we still know exactly what is going on and they are talking to the pilots on board,” says Quarrie.

Bang

Finally the all-important issue of the Friday night fireworks: formed 12 months ago, the Cowes Fireworks Committee has been set up to ensure the future of the display and in particularly its funding and has confirmed that Pains Fireworks will be back on board again this year. The company has a long heritage with the Cowes fireworks display with the first recorded link to the regatta in the Pains Fireworks ledgers dating back to August 1862.

2013 will see the return of the counting fireworks and this year’s display will be given a dramatic Big Blast Off! Commenting on what people can expect from this year’s display, David Alvis, of Pains Fireworks, said: “For those that remember the Cowes displays of old, there remains the lasting memory of the whole audience loudly counting along with a special series of fireworks; the “counting fireworks of Cowes” are still talked about even today. With the return of Pains to Cowes, we think this is the year to bring this participation back to the display. It isn’t anything more than just a great bit of fun.”

Many have already given generously to the fireworks fundraising campaign, with thanks in particular to platinum level fireworks supporters Aberdeen Asset Management, Cowes Week Limited, Cowes Town Waterfront Trust, and Artemis Investment Management; gold level fireworks supporters the Island Sailing Club, the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, the Royal London Yacht Club, the Royal Ocean Racing Club, the Royal Yacht Squadron, the Royal Thames Yacht Club, Red Funnel Ferries, Blue Funnel Ferries, Solent & Wightline Cruises, Cowes Business Association, Cowes Harbour Commission and the Isle of Wight County Press; silver level fireworks supporters CowesTown Regatta, Cowes Town Council, Next Generation Results, Taylor Events, Spinlock, the sailing yacht Leopard; as well as bronze level support from many of the individual businesses in Cowes and private donors. In addition, the Isle of Wight Council provide a huge amount of support for the fireworks, without which the display could not take place.

Donations can be made via Paypal here

Looking beyond 2013 and Cowes Week Ltd is to have a restructuring with Stuart Quarrie standing down as CEO but maintaining a part time role as Sailing Director. This will allow him to spend more time cruising, while effectively there will be no change from the sailor's point of view.