AZAB fleet musters

Ready for shorthanded race from Falmouth to the Azores and back

Held once every four years since 1975, the eighth Azores and Back Race is to set sail from Falmouth on 7 June. Organised by the Royal Cornwall YC, the race will visit Ponta del Garda on Soa Miguel before returning on 23 June and is unique among short handed events in that it can be sailed either single or double handed. Total course distance is 2,400 miles.

The race is open to monohulls and multihulls of 29-61ft LOA. The entries are split between five class - class 1 TCF <0.900, class 2 TCF 0.900<0.949, class 3 TCF 0.950<0.999, class 4 TCF of 1.000<, class 5 multihulls.

While the racing is held under IRC and MOCRA handicap rules for class 5, like the Royal Western Yacht Club's races winning ones class on elapsed time is important.

Favourites for line honours are Roger Barbour's 30ft John Shuttleworth-designed trimaran Meridian, which was a leader during the Round Britain and Ireland Race last year and West Briton/Mollymawk which has been winner of the Round Britain Race on the last two occasions. She is now being sailed by Ifor Pedley, with Mini sailor and former Team Philips crewman Alex Bennett crewing.

In the monohull fleet the form is harder to guage. All the Royal Western serial singlehanders are there from Jerry Freeman on the classic Adrian Thompson design Alice's Mirror, Mark Falk on QII, Merfyn Wheatley on Tamarind, OSTAR veteran Peter Crowther on his Channel 36 Predator, Dutch entry Ronny Nollet, Desmond Hampton on ROC.

Among the other notable entries are TV and radio stars and Paul and Libby Heiney and Portugese sailor Ricardo Diniz, who is known to have been struggling to get the money together to charter the well capped Open 50 ex AIRCO Distributor/Spirit of Ipswich/Jimroda for the race.

	Boat	Type	Class	Skipper	Crew	Skipper	Crew
				Outward Leg		Return Leg, if different
1	SLEUTH HOUND	SIGMA 362	2	Colin Drummond	Finbarr O'Halloran
2	MERCURIAL SPIRIT	CORBY 30	4	Allen Spencer-Smith	Andrew Tarplee	Martyn Tarplee	Ollie Archer
3	SWAN	CONTESSA 32	1	Axel Fahning	Chris Coles		Jürgen Koschyk
4	NUTCRACKER	HALLBERG RASSY	3	Simon Timm	Steve Butters	Neil Thackray	Nick Whitehead
5	SHIMSHAL	SIGMA 38	3	RETURN ONLY		Simon Currin	Richard Weller
6	AYESHA	TBA	1	Paul Heiney	SINGLE HANDED		Libby Heiney
7	TAMAR SWALLOW	VICTORIA 38	3	Sue Thatcher	Martin Johns	OUTWARD ONLY
8	ASSARAIN 111	J/120	4	Richard Winder	Jerry Driscoll
9	OSPREY of PORTLAND	WESTERLY STORM 33	1	Michael Leonard	Scott Hislop
10	LENORE	S. & S.	3	Jeremy Gale	Edward Kay
11	CORYPHAENA	SOUTHERLY 100	TBA	Gary Clements	Chris Knowlton
12	QUAKER GIRL	NICHOLSON 32	1	John Head	Alex Head
13	APHRODITE	GRAND SOLEIL 40	4	Rui de Mendonca	Nuno de Mendonca	OUTWARD ONLY
14	ALICE'S MIRROR	PETIT BATEAU 32	4	Jerry Freeman	Laurent Noel
15	CORINTHIAN SPIRIT	DEHLER 41	4	Anthony Whitehouse	D. Reynolds
16	DORIS MINOR	SIGMA 362	3	Anthony Llewellyn-Davies	Struan Wallace		Marc Smith
17	RIVALEE	RIVAL BOWMAN	1	Robert Hudson	Geoffrey Dover
18	QII	POCOCK 35	4	Mary Falk	SINGLE HANDED
19	TAMARIND	FORMOSA 42	2	Mervyn Wheatley	SINGLE HANDED
20	BETELGEUSE	STARLIGHT 39	3	Peter Flower	Robin Owens
21	JALFREZI	J/120	4	Gareth Thomas	Ras Turner
22	GANYMEDE	RUSTLER 36	1	Gareth Emrys-Jones	Mary Townshend		Dick Andrews
23	FRANGLAIS	DUFOUR 40	4	Stephen Card	Greg Pritchard		Betty Walsh
24	COUILLES DE CHIEN	BENETEAU FIRST 35	3	Roger Mortimer	SINGLE HANDED
25	LANCASTRIAN	RIVAL BOWMAN 46	4	Neil Eatough	Bransom Bean		Chris Coles
26	MUSTN'T GRUMBLE	ISLAND PACKET 380	2	David Lea	Tony Ferris
27	MAHURI	UFO34 (Holman & Pye)	2	Jim Millar	Kevin Balmer		Andy Seaton
28	MATJAS	J/130	4	Pieter de Kort	TBA		TBA
29	HAYAI	BENETEAU A 40	4	Nico Budel	Coen R Meijer		TBA
30	REBEL	S & S 34	1	Nick Haggett	Nicky Fisher		Andrew de Mora
31	FLAME	SWEDEN 38	3	Martin Fordham	Matthew Fordham
32	PREDATOR	CHANNEL 36	TBA	Peter Crowther	SINGLE HANDED
33	SUROMA	STARLIGHT 35	2	Bill Graham	Marti Graham
34	EQUILIBRIUM	SWEDEN 38	3	Graham Whitehouse	Michael T McGee
35	KING OF HEARTS	SWAN 44 MKJ	4	Andrew Wilkes	Mark Taylor
36	DARRAMY	BENETEAU FIRST 405	3	Brian C Wallace	Susan Dracott
37	LA PROMESSE	Morrison / Nollett One off	4	Ronny Nollet
38	MORFEU	Dufour Classic 36	TBA	Pedro Carreiro	Rui Andrade	OUTWARD ONLY
39	WEST BRITON / MOLLYMAWK	Bailey/Morrison	5	Ifor Pedley	Alex Bennett
40	CAVATINA	Granada 38	2	Dave Hennessy	Sean Hanley
41	ACT of DEFIANCE	Oyster SJ35	3	Richard Houghton
42	HITCH-HIKER	WESTERLY STORM 33	2	Peter Bedwell	Dan Roper
43	NUNATAK	J/120	4	Mike Jaques	Alex Robson
44	TORBELLINO	Sigma 38	3	Rob Craigie	Karen Dolling
45	EAR TO ABSURDITY	Jeanneau Sunfizz 39	TBA	Peter Whatley	William Whatley
46	ROC	Kristiensdijk	TBA	Desmond Hampton	TBA		Keith Hancock
		One off
47	ORA PRO NOBIS	Bashford Howison 41	4	Jean Marie Desseaux	Stefan de Kemp
48	MADE IN PORTUGAL	BOC Open 50	4	Ricardo Diniz	SINGLE HANDED
49	ROARING FORTY	Open 40	4	Michel Kleinjans	Ian Wittevrongel	Same	SINGLE HANDED
50	FIERY CROSS	Owen-Clark Trimaran	5	Donald McHardy	SINGLE HANDED	Same	Diana Holder
51	MERIDIAN	Shuttleworth 30	5	Roger Barber	SINGLE HANDED	Same