Cowes, UK - 16 June
2010 -
Sun, wind, great
competitors and a tense finish that went right down to the closing seconds of
the final race made the final day of the Coutts Quarter Ton Cup 2010 an
absolute stunner. After nine races
in conditions that tested the competitors to the max the worthy and very
popular winner of the 2010 Coutts Quarter Ton Cup is the 1990 Gonzalez designed
Cote owned by Darren Marston and Olly Ophaus and crewed by Rob Dyer, Dave Lenz
and Chris Cooper. Long-term supporters
of the Quarter Ton Class, Darren and Olly purchased Cote in a very sorry state
in winter 09/10 and have spent many hours restoring her to concourse condition. At the prize giving Darren Marston
thanked his fellow competitors for an outstanding regatta and made a heartfelt
and emotional speech in which he paid tribute to the many people racing this
week who had helped and supported him in his sailing career, to the organisers
of the event, to the sponsor Coutts and to his crew.
Going into the final
day Peter Morton's Anchor Challenge, designed by Bruce Farr in 1980 and crewed
by Kelvin Rawlings, John Newnham, Stuart Childerley and Jason Carrington, led
the regatta by a narrow 1.5 point margin from Cote with John Greenwood aboard
Rob Gray's 1990 Vrolik design Aquila third, Louise Morton sailing Anchor
Challenge's sister ship Espada fourth, Bullet, designed by Fauroux in 1982
fifth and Ian Southworth's Whiskers, a 1979 Joubelt Nivelt, in sixth.
The Race Committee
delivered on their promise to run three final races - races seven to nine of
the series - and laid on two excellent windward leeward courses followed by a
final Solent round the cans course with a spectacular running finish off
Cowes. With every race there were
changes on the leader board. Cote
opened with a win whilst Anchor Challenge took a second putting Cote into the
lead by half a point. Espada came
third in moving them up into third place overall with Aquila now fourth and
Whiskers fifth.
Race eight proved to
be the pivotal point in the regatta for more reasons that one. As the boats came round the second
weather mark Cote led Anchor Challenge round the mark and the two boats had a
comfortable lead on the pack. Anchor Challenge's kite set went well
and they were looking pretty confident until a massive gust came rolling down
off the shore just as bowman Jason Carrington was tidying away the jib. Within seconds the foredeck was awash
and the boys were on their way to giving the fleet a master class in how to
complete the perfect Chinese gybe. With the exception of the ever canny John Newnham the entire crew ended
up getting a soaking and crucially it was some time before they could get the
boat righted and the kite down. They immediately re-hoisted and were back on track but those vital
seconds meant that they could only manage a fourth place while Cote went on to
win the race. Cote now led the
regatta by 2.5 points from Anchor Challenge as they prepared for one last
race.
Sadly bad luck was running
in the Morton family in that penultimate race and Louise Morton found herself
the wrong side of the line in the closing minute of the start and subject to a
20% Z flag penalty. Her 28 point
score dropped her from third down into sixth, leaving Aquila in third, Whiskers
four and Bullet fifth.
The final round the
cans race was an absolute cliffhanger with tidal gates, wind shifts and
velocity variations galore. For
the leading pack it was perhaps one of the closest races of the regatta. At each mark competitors and spectators
alike tried to calculate the corrected times and there was much worried
glancing back over shoulders. The
final run all the way from the Hill Head shore to the finish off Cowes was neck
and neck and only feet separated the leading half dozen as the crossed the
finish line. As they crossed they
looked back to see the chasing pack coming down on a building breeze and the
stopwatches were out in force. Once the calculations had been made Whiskers was
the race winner with Tony Dodd's Purple Haze second, Aquila third, Cote fourth,
Anchor Challenge fifth, Bullet sixth and Espada seventh.
Cote were declared the
worthy winners of the 2010 Coutts
Quarter Ton Cup with Anchor Challenge second, Aquila third, Whiskers fourth,
Bullet fifth and Espada sixth. At
the prize giving Stephen Kemp of title sponsor Coutts presented the prizes and
thanked the Quarter Ton Class for a wonderful four year partnership and looked
forward to many more years of association with the Quarter Tonners.
Alongside the main
prizes there were also a number of special presentations. The Ron Holland Trophy for the top
production boat went to Richard Thomas's Bolero Sergeant Pepper, the Concourse
de Elegance, awarded by the Race Committee was won by Phoenix owned by the
Welch/Thompson/Manser/Flemming partnership, the oldest bowman award went to Pete
"Hovis" Briant. The youngest crew
award went to Tiger owned by George Kenefick and George Kingston, and a special
award for the boat completing the most broaches during the regatta - a fetching
lime green mask and snorkel - went to Mike Webb and Tom Bailey's Flashheart.
Thanks must go to
sponsors Coutts, the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club and its race management team
and of course to the competitors themselves for making this perhaps the best
Coutts Quarter Ton Cup revival event yet. Here's to next year!
Full results are
available from
www.rcyc.co.uk.
For those of you who
love boat statistics
Click Here for a list of the boats giving their date of
build and designer.
You can also find further information, interviews, video clips and photos on the
Quarter Ton Class Blog.
Provisional
Overall Top Ten Overall
1 Cote -
Darren Marston and Olly Ophaus - 17 points
2. Anchor
Challenge - Peter Morton - 21.5 points
3. Aquila -
John Greenwood/Rob Gray - 30 points
4. Whiskers -
Ian Southworth - 37 points
5. Bullet -
Howard Sellars & Mike Till - 48 points
6. Espada -
Louise Morton - 58 points
7. Tiger -
George Kenefick and George Kingston
8. Illegal
Immigrant - Willy McNeill & Mike Pascall
9. Diamond -
Graydon and Thomas Dawson
10.Sergeant
Pepper - Richard Thomas
Full
results are available from
www.rcyc.co.uk.Thanks to Paul Wyeth of
www.pwpictures.com for the images used in today's release.
For further information about the 2010 Coutts Quarter Ton Cup please visit
www.rcyc.co.uk or contact Jo
Chugg,Sailing Secretary, Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, The Parade, Cowes, Isle of
Wight, PO31 7QU, E-mail
jo.chugg@sigma33.com, Tel +44 (0)1983
293581.
Members of the press requiring further information or images should contact RCYC Press Officer Fiona Brown
on E-mail
fiona.brown@fionabrown.com or Tel +44 (0)7711 718470.
