Cowes Week Day 5: Gladiator wins Britannia Cup
by Rupert Holmes 31 Jul 21:18 UTC
27 July - 2 August 2024
In a stunning performance Tony Langley's TP52 Gladiator beat 34 of the highest rated IRC yachts competing at Cowes Week to lift the prestigious Britannia Cup, after a long postponement while competitors waited for a stable wind to materialise.
The first attempt to start the fleet from the outer Royal Yacht Squadron line, with star teenage sailor Kai Hockley firing the starting cannon, resulted in a general recall. Even in the re-start, which took place under flag Z, penalising any competitor crossing the line in the final minute before the start, two boats were premature.
Many classes enjoyed tantalisingly close racing, including the Dragon fleet, where only five seconds separated the first three boats, Gavia Wilkinson-Cox's Jerboa, Glynn Williams' Dreki and Eric Williams' Ecstatic.
Today was also Youth Day at the Regatta, with a focus on the participation and achievements of hundreds of young sailors competing this week in fleets as diverse as Dragons, J/70s, Cape 31s, Contessa 32s and every IRC class.
18 year old Kai Hockley, from Tottenham in north London and a student at the Greig City Academy, is "a real stand out talent," according to Sir Ben Ainslie, who has selected him to join the development programme of his sailing teams, including the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team, the INEOS Britannia America's Cup Team and the Athena Pathway Women's and Youth America's Cup Teams.
Today, Hockley also had the honour of firing the Royal Yacht Squadron cannon for the start of the Britannia Cup and is racing a Flying 15 all week. "I'm buzzing to have this opportunity," he says of his forthcoming involvement with Ainslie's programmes. "It's a great experience working with teams at this level where there are Olympians and world champions and learning how they operate and work within a team."
Race detail
All subsequent starts from the RYS line were also under flag Z, which made competitors far more line shy than usual. In the Flying 15 class Rupert Mander and Gareth Edwards' Men Behaving Badly was first away at the start, followed by Peter and Stephen Card's Crews Missile, and Graham Deegan's Akarana which was only marginally disadvantaged compared to the leading duo. At the gun Kai Hockley & Jessye Opoku-Ware's Flip Flop was a little further back, but sailing faster and was soon mixing with the leaders, until slipping back in a patch of lighter breeze. Mander and Edwards went on to score a fourth consecutive victory ahead of Rob Goddard & Arlo Braund's Farfallina, with Akarana finishing third only 10 seconds later.
Local sailor Ruby Sunderland, who's celebrating her 17th birthday today, was lying second overall in the Sonar fleet at the start of today's racing. The Andrew Cassell Foundation's ACF Dolphin, Alistair Barter & Richard Bailey's Bertie, and Simon Clarke's Jenny XXX all appeared well placed at the start, with Sunderland's Cowes Match Race 1 only just behind.
Today Bertie took a second successive win of the Regatta, followed by Jenny XXX and ACF Dolphin, while Sunderland was fourth, missing a podium finish by only 28 seconds. With four races sailed Barter now leads the class overall on 8 points, with Sunderland second on 15 and Clarke third on 20 points.
The Etchells class also benefits from a large number of dedicated youth sailors who hone their skills through the winter with the Etchells Youth Academy. Camereon Yates' young team on Sumo has consistently improved through the regatta and put in an excellent performance to win their first race today, 13 seconds ahead of Shaun Frolich's Exabyte. Joshua Beadsworth, Ethan Rhodes & Hayden Sewell finished third on No Dramas more than three and a half minutes later.
Like many of the older dayboat classes at Cowes Week, many Redwings have remained in the same family for generations and young sailors feature strongly among the crews. Today Rory and Sasha Morrison's Paroquet appeared best placed at the outer end of the start line, just ahead and to windward of Dominic Samuelson's Tarpon, while James Tate's Rosetta looked to be in a fairly strong mid-line position, with a useful windward advantage over the fleet.
However, Cowes Week races offer many opportunities to pass your opponents and Matt Alexander, John Raymond and Alexander Shaw's Harlequin again rose to the fore to take a third victory, 15 seconds ahead of James Wilson's Quail. Hugo Cuddigan's Capella ll crossed the line third, only 23 seconds later.
William Reid's Fay led the Sunbeam class into the start today, with Stewart Reed's Firefly a little to leeward and a few feet ahead, and Simon Pattersons' Minty to leeward of both. After couple of minutes Fay pulled away a little to windward and slightly ahead, into a more commanding position, while Firefly dropped marginally further back. Racing between these three boats remained close and they crossed the finish in a different order, with Firefly taking a fourth consecutive victory, with Minty second and Fay third.
John Demaine's Bluebell made a neat start in the Mermaid fleet, just to windward of Kate Broxham's Mimosa and with more speed. Further inshore, Thomas Youngman's Halluf also looked well placed, with a windward advantage on the fleet. Halluf was one of only two boats in the class to split to the south of the guard ship, HMS Tyne, which is stationed on the Trinity House mooring in Cowes Roads. Halluf went on to take her first victory of the week, comfortably ahead of Anthony Eaton's Sheen and Charles Glanville's Zara.
The Victory class, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary, has seen eight boats notch up at least one top four finish so far this week. Nevertheless, Russell Mead's Shearwater ll has put in an impressively consistent performance, picking up a third victory today, 38 seconds ahead of Jim Downing's Ziva, while Nick Benham, Ian Perryman & Clive Good's Zada finished third. James Jopling & Mark Briggs' Zest took fourth place just 8 seconds later.
The XOD fleet is always the source of some of the closest and most intense racing at Cowes Week. The boats are closely matched with tiny speed differences across the fleet that make for very tactical and strategic racing. Today Rory & Amanda Paton and Tim Hire's Mayfly led the pack into a clean start, just ahead of Abby Hire, Alex Paton and Kate & Tom Wharmby's XL.
Winner of the first three races, John Tremlett, Tim Copsey & Fraser Graham's Astralita was a little to leeward of this pair, while James Markby and David Bedford's X-Ray looked well placed further inshore and to windward of the pack.
Al Ashford's Foxglove scored her first victory of the regatta, ahead of Mayfly, while Roger Yeoman's Xcitation took third place. It was a disappointing race, however, for Astralita, which dropped to 28th place, a result they will hope to be able to drop when the discard comes into play once the fifth race in the series, scheduled for tomorrow, has been completed. Competition was close among the middle of the XOD fleet today, where seven boats, for example, finished within a 60 second window.
Find more information at www.cowesweek.co.uk