Being There
The Quarter Ton Panic, a Guimpel design from 1984, goes to the Coutts Ton Cup. Follow the adventure…
After an overnight drive that saw Panic arrive in Cowes on Friday the 19th June in preparation for the Round The Island race and the weather was really hot. The mast was up and the boat afloat by 1100. With a bit of final tinkering the boys went shopping and taking in the atmosphere of Cowes prior to the RTI.
The Saturday of the RTI dawned to not much wind…… Long story short. This was the first time we have done this race…ERM… So being OCS at the 0730AM start wasn’t in the plan and we got a 5% time penalty. We finished at 1901 and we were 116th overall without the penalty we would have been 37th DOH
There was some training on Monday in preparation for the QTC and the team did 150 gybes and 150 tacks in 15 knots and their confidence was high. After a little motor up the Medina on the Tuesday. Followed by a cheeky lift out for a little polish, they were ready for the main event.
Oh dear the racing on Wednesday was very light and the boys thought “Oh no not again!” Last year they got 19th out of 22 and were not the happiest bunnies as they were back to no wind in Cowes…. The 3 races were very hard with AliceII and Bullit and the normal contenders doing their thing. They had no pointing and no speed compared to the light teams… After a 30th out of 32 in the first race, they wound the rig a bit tighter and got a 28th followed by a 26th in the third race… The best sail of the day was back to Cowes as the wind hit 15 knots. The boys truly had their heads down and spoke with people at the docks about the need for some wind…
What a different day Thursday was…. They had 15-20 knots of wind…This is what they had been waiting for…. They chose a committee boat end start and BADA..BING..BADA …BOOM they took off….. With a top mark rounding of 10th after being shut out at the top mark and doing a quick 360 to get back on it..They got an 8th and the picture above says it all!
Race two was a similar start despite Phil deciding to dump the jib on the line as the two boats in front had stopped and were hitting each other. After some “gentle” persuasion he pulled it back in and we rolled them and got an 18th in the race but looked pretty good doing it…
The final race of the day saw the team strike right and end up with a 10th. This was their best ever day at the QTC. The beat Espada in one race. They were at the front and loving it. The looks from the other teams of where have this lot come from in between races was priceless… After the third race they started to take us seriously as the “normal” had been upset.
The third day was a mixture of really strong tides and being bunched up… The team finished 4th in the Corinthian class.. After realising that of the 32 teams this year only 8 qualified for Corinthian status. This is a tough fleet but they love it. They were even mentioned in the blog as having 3 great starts for all races….
The crowning glory was that Panic won the Concourse D’ Elegance trophy and for that they were over the moon. Did the team have a great time. YES the help from the other teams in tips and advice is great… Will they be back at camp next year …. Probably.
Got to thank Coutts Bank for sponsoring the event and the hard work of RCYC Cowes and the race team…..
