Vattenfall Ramsgate Week - Day 3

Today's racing was sponsored by Ramsgate Week's title sponsors, Vattenfall, the company responsible for the Thanet Wind Farm. The IRC fleet were treated to a long, 30 mile race, which took them on a ten mile run to a cardinal mark off the wind farm. All IRC fleets were competing for the Noot Cup. Once again, the wind was variable, ranging from five to fifteen knots and shifted in direction frequently.


IRC Class 1
In Class 1, Xwaves got off to a good start at the committee boat end of the line, with X-Tatic close behind. Peter Jackson's Icom Assassin started towards the pin end, with Koko Kai taking their start in the middle of the line. Icom Assassin rounded the first mark, two boat lengths ahead of Xwaves and Koko Kai, with the rest of the fleet following. The next leg was a ten mile run to South Thanet, a cardinal mark south of the Vattenfall wind farm. Icom Assassin and Xwaves went high and KoKo Kai lost some ground by sailing a deeper, more direct track. Icom Assassin got a new breeze, taking a horizon lead on the rest of the fleet. Xwaves extended their lead over Koko Kai, but two miles from the South Thanet Vattenfall Wind Farm mark, Koko Kai found the breeze and overtook Xwaves. Positions remained this way, with Icom Assassin's early lead further extended by a tidal gate to take line honours and the Link Cup. Xwaves took second place, with Ian Langston & Partners The Geek taking third place.


IRC Class 2
After a short beat to the Icom racing mark, the fleet set off on a ten mile downwind run to the South Thanet cardinal buoy, off the Vattenfall Wind Farm. The first Class 2 boat to round the mark was Richard Sparrow's J92 Who's to No, closely followed by, amongst others, Marine Diffusion Dunkerque, Expedite and Antix. Who's to No was first to the windward mark. A closely fought race between the Impala's Reaction and Scallywag II finally resulted in Reaction taking first place for the Shepherd Neame Trophy, followed by Who's to No second and Scallywag II third.


Noot Cup
The Noot Cup was the overall placing between the two IRC fleets. Peter Jackson's Icom Assassin (the fastest boat in the fleet) took first place, with Reaction, (one of the lowest rated boats in the fleet) sailed by John Barrett and Paul Woodward second and Mike and Jo Brand's X-35 Xwaves third.


IRC Mid Week Series Class Winners


IRC Class 1
Icom Assassin (Peter Jackson & Gary Shaffer)
Xwaves (Mike & Jo Brand)
Koko Kai (Alan Page)
IRC Class 2
Reaction (John Barrett & Paul Woodward)
Scallywag II (Peter Pearson & Barry Smith)
Antix (John Allen)


Cruiser Class 5 & 6
The Race Officer set a running start course down to Broadstairs Knoll, then to East Brake, down to Stonar and finish. At the start, the fleet split in two, with Magnum, Surprise, Toucan and Sunbird taking the inshore course, with Sydney II and the rest of the fleet going offshore. In the event, the offshore course paid off as they had more wind and Sydney 2 rounded Broadstairs Knoll first with the rest of the fleet following closely behind. Positions did not really change with a shy reach to East Break and a beat to Stonar. As the fleet was approaching Stonar, the tide changed making life difficult for the back end of the fleet.
In Class 5, Sydney II took line honours, but was beaten on handicap by Frank Martin's Surprise to win the Broadstairs Knoll trophy. Sydney II was second, followed by Arthur Freeman's J92 Jazz


In Class 6, Mirage took first place to win the Penguin Trophy with Rush in second place and Mallard third.


Trophies for the day and for the IRC Mid Week Series were presented at the Royal Temple Yacht Club by Mandy Broughton from Vattenfall.


Royal Temple Yacht Club, 6 Westcliff Mansions, Ramsgate, CT11 9HY, United Kingdom.