Thrills & spills at Coutts Quarter Ton Cup Day 2

On June 18, 2008

“Coutts Quarter Ton Cup ‘08 hosted by the Royal Corinthian Boat Society, Cowes. 16-18 May ‘08. Lonnie Marston’s Catch leads the pack at the weather MARK on day two of the race.”   
Fast, angry & fabled fun was the best way to sum up the 2nd day of the Coutts Quarter Ton Cup, hosted by the Royal Corinthian Boat Society, Cowes. There were thrills, spills & some incredibly close racing as the 25 strong flotilla enjoyed champagne boating in bright sunlight & building sea wind to accomplished regattas four through seven of the nine regatta series.

These Day’s top performers were the evergreen crew of Luis Dodd’s 1977 David Thomas designed Purple Haze. Sadly Luis couldn’t compete this week, but the sailing boat is here with usual suspects Warren Moreland & Tom Webb heading up the crew. they are joined by three young bloods in the shape of John Moreland, Garrod Hewlett, who has captivated Luis’s place on the helm & Tim Mark on tactics. After slow start a day ago the boys truly establish their form these day engaging regattas four & five, attractive eighth in regatta six & 2nd in regatta seven to charge up the leader board from 6th to second.

Another crew on roll these day were the French crew of Olivier Hays aboard Farrniente. This enthusiastic crew, who are ardent supporters of the Quarter Ton Category, had mediocre time in a day ago’s light airs & lay 22nd in the rankings overnight. These Day was different story albeit & as the breeze built they stormed up the flotilla, improving with every extra knt of breeze to score 16, 8, 4, five & move all the way up to 11th whole.

With breezes gradually building through the day from seven to about 17 kts the racing got progressively more interesting to watch. The flotilla was incredibly closely bunched at all MARK roundings & there was plenty of fine elderly fashioned IOR rocking & rolling on the windier runs. Quarter Ton Category Director Harold “Morty” Morton tells us that there are two types of Quarter Ton seamans - those who have accomplished the classic rolling Chinese jib & flattened the sailing boat & those who’ll shortly complete the classic rolling Chinese jib & flatten the sailing boat.

These Day two of our newer Quarter Ton flotilla members executed this very advance technical manoeuvre with aplomb & gave the flotilla & watching spectators much entertainment in the process. Graham & Veronica Hetherington & their crew in Good Carry IV went for the classic double role, jib & laydown, but Harold Crabb & his crew in Jackflash definite that they could go one better. They threw the waiting audience off the scent initially with minor dummy broach, then appeared to recover momentarily previously going all out with super triple role, high speed spin out & boom in the air laydown with spreaders & masthead underwater & two crew hopping on the keel to right the sailboat. Though they before long had the sailing boat back under control the speed of the broach & the strength of water vs the rig had popped spreader & with the outboard now firmly knitted up with various bits of kit & rope lower down they fortunately accepted tow from the waiting safety sailboat until they were capable to extract the outboard & complete the trip home under their own steam.

We besides had humdinger of husband & wife struggle in the central of the flotilla these day as Morty & Louise Morton went head to head in their sister vessel 1980 Didi designs Anchor Challenge & Espada. A Day Ago Louise & her all girl crew in the superbly restored & regatta ready Espada had the upper hand, but these day Harold & the boys were decided to combat back in their trusty, if somewhat fragile & entirely un-restored or regatta ready Anchor Challenge. The 1st three regattas of the day saw the sailboats neck & neck on corrected time all the way round the regatta course. Ultimately the boys got the better of all three fights, but only by 9, five & 11 seconds respectively. At No Time ones to take defeat lying down the girls grunted up & Espada romped home to good-looking 3rd place in regatta seven albeit Anchor Challenge languished down in 14th place, some two minutes 33 seconds behind on corrected time.

Back on the marina John Newnham, bowman on Anchor Challenge, was to be establish sweeping the deck of debris from the assorted early 80’s vintage sails which had gradually fallen aside as the day wore on. Decided to pierce with his “if we don’t already have it in the spares box or can’t take it from somebody else in the flotilla we’re not using it” campaign, Morty has been searching the flotilla for some spare headsails that might fit & praying for windy final day as they’re now down to just the number three!

With seven regattas complete the discard comes into play & in the whole standings Chris Frost & Jason George’s 1982 Doug Peterson designed Tom Bombadill continues to lead with 14.5 points. They opened their day with joint 3rd place, shared on corrected time with Lonnie Marston’s Catch, followed by 2nd & 3rd previously scoring 12th
in regatta seven, their worst result of the race so far.

After their stunning two win day Purple Haze has jumped from sixth to 2nd place counting 21 points. ASAP, 1989 Fauroux design owned by the Christie, Layton, Crawford, Churchill Syndicate, came within gnat’s whisker of engaging regatta four, loosing out to Purple Haze by just one 2nd, then took fifth & seventh previously turning the tables & engaging regatta seven from Purple Haze by 18 seconds. They move up from fourth to 3rd total just one point behind Purple Haze.

Eugene Sellars & Stanley Till in the 1978 Fauroux design Bullet besides seemed to find better form in these day’s stronger breezes engaging regatta six & besides adding 9, three & eight to their score to move up to fourth total with 32 points. David Tydeman & his crew in the Joubert Nivert designed Snoopy besides moved up place whole & lie fifth on 32.5 points. Sadly Louise Morton’s 3rd in regatta seven wasn’t sufficient to hold onto 2nd place & the girls have now slipped down into sixth whole with 35 points.

This evening the crews are enjoying the traditional Coutts Quarter Ton Cup Gala Dinner where legendary seaman & Olympic crew coach David “Sid” Howlett is the after dinner speaker. Equally traditionally Ben Wood is leading the after dinner heckling, ably assisted by Tom Webb.

Two regattas remain to be sailed in tomorrow’s final day & with stronger breezes forecast everybody is looking forward to stunning finish to what has already been completely outstanding race.

by Fiona Brown