Exabyte takes De Guingand Bowl

A report from this weekend's RORC race to Dieppe

The RORC De Guingand Bowl Race to Dieppe started from the RYS line under blue skies and a light westerly breeze on Friday 14 May.

First away, on one start was the IRC Fleet at 1840, lead away by Andrew Pearce’s IMX 40 Magnum II, Shaun Frohlic’s IMX 45 Exabyte III and Grant Gordon/Klaus Diederichs’ Swan 45 Swantastic, under spinnakers. Ten minutes later at 1850 the multihulls got away cleanly from the line.

A forecast for a light wind race prompted the committee to set the shorter course which would take the fleet east out of the Solent and then straight to Dieppe to the finish off the D1 North Cardinal Buoy, a distance of approximately 100 miles.

Conditions would indeed turn out to be as predicted with Jazz, Chris Bull’s J/145 reporting in at 0945 on Saturday morning that they were 10 miles west of the finish in a light west south westerly breeze of around 4 knots, the tide having turned foul.

Another trick the weather was to play on the yachts would be the fog. Mike Greville sailing his DK46 Erivale thought he had managed to pull away in IRC Zero, only to discover as the fog lifted in the early morning light, that the breeze had filled in a little from the north west, allowing the following pack to set their spinnakers earlier and close the gap.

Line honours went to Bear of Britain, Kit Hobday and Tim Louis’ Farr 52, finishing at 1051 following by Piet Vroon’s Lutra 52 Tonnerre de Breskens crossing 20 minutes later at 1108 and Jazz at 1140. Erivale was the next home at 1153 ahead of Swantastic, Exabyte and Nick Hartshom’s Ker 11.3 El Gringo.

It was not until 1450 that the next boat Hooligan V, Edward Broadway’s Max Fun 35 crossed the line at Dieppe.

By 1730 no other boats had finished which, when the TCC’s were applied, meant that Exabyte had done enough to take the De Guingand Bowl for BCT IRC and the St Barbara Trophy for IRC Zero, with Jazz second and El Gringo third and securing the Windward Sailing Trophy for BCT IRM.

First of IRC 1 to finish was Maverick 2, Dominic Chappell’s IMX40 at 1943, just ten minutes behind Branec III, Roger Langevin’s Futra 50 (that will shortly be competing in The Transat). Their effort through the hard night and following day was good enough to earn Maverick 2 the Stewart Cup for IRC 1 on corrected time. It would be almost 12 hours later at 0644 on Sunday morning before the next yacht in IRC 1 crossed the line in the form of Magnum II, 15 minutes ahead of Cutting Edge, R Lutener, P James and M Elwood’s Mills 36. This was to be the order on the prizegiving list also.

The battle between the boats in IRC 2 brought Energies Total, Philippe Bourgeois’ Beneteau First 36.7 to the finish line at 0655 ahead of Carpet Bagger, Michael Ronson’s HOD35 who was closely followed by Noel Racine’s JPK9.6 Foggy Dew and Alistair Ray’s J/109 Jumunu. Once the numbers were crunched Foggy Dew lifted the Auclair Trophy, second going to Energies Total and third to Jumunu.

Although out of the running for a Trophy in IRC 2, Psipsina, John Loden’s HOD35 picked up a RORC Prize for winning the 2 Handed Division.

After nearly 39 hours of racing a tired but happy crew of Sigress, David & Fiona Crawforth’s Sigma 33 made their way into the yacht club as the first boat to finish in IRC 3. There perseverance had paid off they were the winners of the David Maufe Salver.

Split between seven of the competing yachts were ten Sailability sailors vying for the R J Rutter Trophy, awarded to the yacht with the BCT in the Sailability Division. Jeu D’Esprit, Clem Jones’ J/160 had four members on board, with Blustery Day, Colin Sinclair’s Beneteau First 32, Simply the Best, Phillip Wood’s Baltic 42, Marionette, Chris Dunning’s J/120, Lutine Don Moreton’s Swan 53, Magnum II and Sigress all taking one sailor with a disability each. Despite the strong challenge of Sigress, Jeu D’Esprit won the R J Rutter Trophy.

The RORC would like to thank the Cercle de la Voile de Dieppe for their hospitality, especially the following: President: M. Bernard Hamel, Committee Director M. Jacques-Henri Heulot, who is also the owner of the committee boat at the finish Arbalestrille, the crew of the finish boat Dominique Obot...and Bar Manager, Renee-Paul Arent.

Results:

Pos	Sail No	Boat	Type	Owner	Elapsed	Handicap	Corrected
1	IRL4500	Exabyte III	IMX 45	Shaun Frohlich	17:50:14	1.155	20:36:07
2	GBR4519L	Jazz	J 145	Chris Bull	17:00:03	1.217	20:41:24
3	GBR1107L	El Gringo	Ker 11.3	Nick Hartshorn	17:59:47	1.156	20:48:14
4	GBR236R	Erivale	DK 46	Mike Greville	17:13:57	1.209	20:50:03
5	GBR945R	Swantastic	Swan 45	Grant Gordon/Klaus Diederichs	17:41:54	1.188	21:01:32
6	NED27	Tonnerre de Breskens	Lutra 52	Piet Vroon	16:28:25	1.288	21:13:05
7	GBR521R	Bear of Britain	Farr 52	Kit Hobday & Tim Louis	16:11:54	1.315	21:18:03
8	GBR3935R	Hooligan V	Max Fun 35	Edward Broadway	20:11:13	1.108	22:22:02
9	GBR1540R	Maverick 2	IMX 40	Dominic Chappell	1 - 01:03:47	1.095	1 - 03:26:39
10	GBR1601R	Jeu D'Esprit	J 160	Clem Jones	1 - 01:17:26	1.173	1 - 05:39:57
11	FRA105	Branec III	Futura 50	Roger Langevin	1 - 00:52:54	1.338	1 - 09:17:30
12	GBR4520	Sigress	Sigma 33	David & Fiona Crawforth	1 - 14:40:46	0.927	1 - 11:51:21
13	FRA28711	Foggy Dew	JPK 9.6	Noel Racine	1 - 12:48:36	0.997	1 - 12:41:58
14	FRA28006	Energies Total	First 36.7	Philippe Bourgeois	1 - 12:15:43	1.022	1 - 13:03:35
15	GBR9487R	Jumunu	J 109	Alistair Ray	1 - 12:55:42	1.028	1 - 13:57:44
16	GBR7722R	Carpetbagger	HOD 35	Michael Ronson	1 - 12:46:06	1.036	1 - 14:05:31
17	GBR7716R	Psipsina	HOD 35	John Loden	1 - 13:56:57	1.015	1 - 14:31:06
18	GBR39R	Magnum II	IMX 40	Andrew Pearce	1 - 12:04:19	1.078	1 - 14:53:08
19	GBR5991T	Cutting Edge	Mills 36	R Lutener / P James / M Elwood	1 - 12:20:20	1.073	1 - 14:59:30
20	FRA28918	Groupe Partouche	A 40	Christophe Coatnoan	1 - 12:27:29	1.102	1 - 16:10:36