New X-34 claims Cervantes Trophy

Exile/Mirabaud comes out on top in the RORC's race to Le Havre

The RORC's Cervantes Trophy has been won by Nicholas de la Fourniere and his new X-34 Exile/ Mirabaud, who also won the IRC Two and the Two–Handed classes.

The race was a testament to the calibre of those who sail two-handed with the RORC, with three IRC Two two-handed teams in the top five of the overall results.

Exile/Mirabaud was trailed by Simon Curwen’s Voador and John Loden’s Psipsina, who would go on to take second and fifth overall, respectively.

Line honours and first in the Super-Zeros went to John Merricks II, skippered by Luke McCarthy, six minutes ahead of the other TP52 in the race, Cutting Edge. Michael Greville’s Erivale III was nearly 20 minutes ahead of his nearest competitor, Bill Blain’s Batfish III, on corrected time in the IRC Zero Class.

In IRC One, RORC Commodore Andrew McIrvine and Quokka ran away with first place, leaving Deliverance 2 (Chris Shipman) and Encore (Steven Anderson) in a close race for second, with Deliverance 2 only 13 seconds ahead on corrected time.

Jean Yves Chateau took top honours in IRC Three with Iromiguy, comfortably ahead of David Lees’ Hephzibar, who enjoyed a safe margin ahead of Andy Theobald and Nokomis.

It was a bright sunny Saturday morning (2 May) in Cowes, as 108 boats gathered for the start of the Cervantes Trophy. With a light westerly breeze forecast, the Race Committee chose to send the fleet on a direct course to Le Havre. First away in the IRC Three class at 0800 was Iromiguy, closely followed by Torbaline. Ten minutes later, Voador led the IRC Two class across the line, with Foggy Dew close behind. The IRC One fleet was led by Encore followed by Puma Logic.

With the wind dropping, the large majority of the Super Zero and Zero class jostled for position way over on the outer limit, but Chernikeeff II and Cutting Edge stole the march, crossing the line first and second hard on the RYS side under the RYS canon, with four of the far side boats crossing the line early and being recalled under Flag X-Ray.

The wind exceeded the forecast and it proved to be a quick race. Tactically, the successful strategy was to make the most of the east going stream in the Channel; when the wind went round to 295° the clever boats had a much faster reach into Le Havre.

Full results here