Photo Tim Wright
IRC Two
Paul O'Higgins' Corby 33, Rockabill V scored two wins today on the Slalom Course, rocketing them to the top of the class and pushing Sailing Logic’s Reflex 38, Visit Malta Puma, into second place. Barry Cunningham's Corby 33, Contango lies in third.
Corby 33s are 1st, 3rd and 7th (3 races)
Photo ©: Marc Turner / CCC
Corby 33 beating all A35s and all J109s. Rockabill V 1st overall with 1,2,1,1,1,1 and Corby 33 Contango 6th overall.
On the whole there were no major surprises in the IRC results with just a couple of changes in placings, with a notable exception in Division One IRC ,with the emergence of Tony Fox’s A35 Gringo to take second place. Gringo who was lying in sixth place yesterday, today scored two seconds and with a discard of 19 this was enough to bring him to second place. The winner, Rockabill, sailed by Mel Collins had five firsts and a second in the series in what was possibly, with 29 boats, the most competitive of the classes. The best of the J109s, Joker 2, was third.
Karasu the Japanese Summit 40 won the Sagamiwan Big Boat Regatta in a testing mixture of conditions. She won the 3 day event with three firsts from 5 inshore races and a coastal race, her ongoing success in IRC racing in Japan against strong opposition is a reflection of the strength of the Summit 40 and the growth of IRC racing worldwide.
Held off beautiful Portofino the Regate Pirelli and its flagship trophy the Coppa Carlo Negri was won by Andy Soriano’s IRC 68 Alegre. Victory in the 9 boat IRC fleet came over a range of conditions from very light on the first two days to strong winds later in the event in which Alegre validated the upgrades carried out over the winter refit by winning every race, under the tactical guidance of Chris Main. The Yacht Club Italiano established the regatta in 1945 as a perpetual challenge trophy, using the historic cup donated by Margherita Puri Negri in memory of her fallen brother, wartime pilot Carlo Negri.
Dan Woolery’s Summit 40 Soozal continued her run of strong IRC performances by winning the 2010 Stone Cup counting straight firsts. Run by the St Francis YC the event provided classic cool but breezy San Francisco cityfront conditions. In a fleet including the RP 45 Criminal Mischief and the A40RC Ciao!, Soozals 4 point total was almost a third of the second place finisher, Brad Copper’s Tripp 43 TNT.
The fleet beat their way east up the northern shore to stay out of the tide before making for Ryde Middle, then running back down to Flying Fish. With the tide under the boats, there was barely enough wind to fill symmetric spinnackers; asymmetrics appeared to fare better by gybeing down to the mark. The plan was to beat back to the first mark before a finish at 'RORC' but the wind had other ideas and by around 2PM, just on the turn of the tide, it became patchy and the Race Committee made a great job of shortening class 4 at Mackley Construction and all other classes at SE Ryde Middle.
Bright sunshine and decent wind gave the competitors in the RORC Easter Challenge a day to remember. Eddie Warden Owen, Chief Executive of the RORC was out on the water coaching everyday and commented after the conclusion of racing.
"Today was brilliant, stunning weather, decent breeze, shifting both ways, classic west Norwest Solent conditions with the breeze coming down the Solent and out of Southampton Water. Early bias on the left gave way to advantage on the right. Great sailing and a real challenge for the competitors."
Corby 33s, 3rd, 9th and 10th after 7 races.
The Landmark 43 Windpower owned by Phil Gutsche won the D&A Cape Town Sailing Week 2010, and with it the South African IRC Championship title. Discarding two podium finishes to take the title from a strong fleet over two weekends, she scored five firsts in eight races ranging from a drifter to well over 25kn. North SA sailmaker Rick Nankin referred to their strength across a wide range of conditions saying it was a good test which suited the Landmark. Designer Mark Mills commented “This success is a testament to the quality of the campaign Phil Gutsche has put together, I am looking forward to seeing her compete in the strong South African team coming to the Commodores Cup in the Solent in August.”
Earlier in the year Mark Mills was honoured with the Irish Independant / Afloat.ie Sailor of the Year Award: "Globally successful yacht designer Mark Mills of County Wicklow is the Afloat.ie/Irish Independent 'Sailor of the Year 2009' after a year of exceptional achievements which built on his original accolade as Sailor of the Month a year ago." http://www.afloat.ie/news/mark-mills-is-sailor-of-the-year/
The success for the Landmark 43 means Mills Design currently holds a total of 6 National IRC Championship titles around the world on three continents: UK, USA, Ireland, South Africa, Italy and Scotland. Details of the Landmark 43 are available at www.landmarkyachts.com.
Mike Williamson’s Summit 40 White Heat triumphed in a closely fought IRC Class 2 at the first major event of the calendar, Key West Race Week. “"It feels very, very good to win this regatta. Key West is well known around the world so certainly it's a great accomplishment," Williamson said. John Cooper’s immaculate Mills 43 Cool Breeze took second along with a Lewmar Boat of the Day trophy to produce a repeat of last years win by a Summit 40 with second place taken by a Mills custom IRC design. White Heat with four race wins built on her East Coast IRC win in Annapolis to show consistency in the predominantly light and medium conditions to win one of the most competitive classes at the event with a race to spare.
The Summit 35’s Act One and Mariners Cove debuted here in real style on the PHRF circle after the two sisterships decided to race together when the second boat chartered by a Cork contingent was unable to get an endorsed IRC rating in time. They enjoyed close racing with a 2nd and 4th in PHRF which if scored in IRC would have been a clear 1,2, leading one experienced helm to declare it an ‘IRC Weapon’, one we look forward to seeing in IRC competition in the build up to the Commodores Cup later this season.
Peter Horn’s Canute won Australia’s largest sailing event, the Audi Victoria Week in Geelong. Peter brought his new Summit 40 south from Sydney for her first major IRC event with Rob Brown calling the shots ““Being a new boat, you don’t know how you will go, but I never dreamed Canute would be this good.” The race reports for the very competitive IRC 2 fleet described one beat “Canute has impressive upwind speed, outpacing her rivals up the first beat of Race 5, leaving the rest of the fleet in her wake. By the time she reached the top mark for the first time, she’d already put a good minute on her nearest rival.”
A great New Year’s Resolution from the Cork Week Organisers.
DALE Yachts are currently have a most interesting build under way of a Corby 36 high performance sailing yacht.
This yacht is being built for an existing DALE client who was looking for a top quality build for a high performance sailing yacht which will be racing at the highest levels.
Corby Design were chosen for their track record of excellent sailing results and, having witnessed at first hand the build of his own DALE motor yachts, DALE were selected as builders.
The hull is a composite build: A laser cut jig has been created for the hull and deck. For the hull cedar strip planks are then scarfed together and fitted to the jig assembly. The hull is then faired before being sheathed in carbon fibre and finally faired to a smooth finish with a epoxy coatings and finished with Awlgrip paint.
Internally, the hull is fitted out with a combination of carbon fibre and timber materials.
The superstructure is a composite build: A composite carbon fibre foam core structure.
The sailing fraternity are keeping a watchful eye on this build and will no doubt being paying close attention to DALEs meticulous attention to detail – photos on this page show how the build is progressing – please come back to this page for regular updates and new photos.
You can view more details of the DALE Yachts Corby 36 here.
First regatta for “dralion” was the Voiles de Saint Tropez 2009 under brilliant conditions. The boat has an amazing potential and the corinthean crew from 6 nations was easily able to beat pro's like RAN (IRC-Minimaxi) or LEOPARD (IRC-Maxi). The owner Pit Finis and Designer Jason Ker were positivly surprised that “dralion” is under any conditions faster than predicted within comfortably & easy handling - we are looking forward to a complete season 2010 in MED under IRCX.
More information at www.ker53.com