COWES WEEK COWES Week competitors were treated to near-perfect racing conditions on Tuesday.
In the Darings, Division Belle initially looked to have a great start, quickly popping out a couple of lengths ahead of the pack, but with the wind light along the entire line, on this occasion starting at the inshore end paid off.
This enabled Hamish Janson and Malcolm Lofts's Streak to get well ahead in the initial stages of the race and they continued to pull out an impressive lead as they tacked west along the Green.
However, Janson and Lofts weren't able to hold this lead through the race — at the finish they had slipped three minutes behind Jamie Clark's Decanter, to finish sixth.
Jeremy Preston and Scott Macleod's Defender was second, just two seconds behind Clark, and Division Belle third.
The inshore end of the line also worked for the J/80 start. Simon Ling's Spitfire expertly snaked through from behind the slower-moving boats on the line to pop out ahead of the pack.
Ling crossed the finish first, two minutes 20 seconds ahead of Robin Fielder's Warp Factor lX, in his third win of the regatta.
Five minutes into their race, the first four Sigma 38s were separated by only three lengths, with Andy Budgen and Fred Schwyn's The Project in a commanding position.
At the end of the four-and-a-half hour race, The Project was almost three minutes ahead of Kevin Sussmilch's Mefisto in second place.
In the Quarter Ton class only two boats were on the line at the start — Lincoln Redding's Whiskers and Roger Swinney's Innuendo — with the rest of the fleet being uncharacteristically cautious.
However, Louise Morton's Espada was already moving forward, with noticeably more speed than the boats around her, and within a few minutes had sailed through the lee of Innuendo.
At the finish, however, Howard Sellars' Bullet had sneaked 20 seconds ahead of Morton, while Rob Gray's Aguilla was snapping at her heels, just seven seconds behind. The finishing order was also reflected in the corrected times.
The inshore end of the White Group line again looked favoured for the Dragon start, with MD Issaias' Fanfare executing an impressive wriggle to get into clean air inshore of the inner distance mark.
But the wind then filled in for the offshore boats, benefiting the top two boats in the fleet Eric Williams' Ecstatic and Julia Bailey's Aimee, which went on to win.
In the Squib class, young Fred Warren-Smith made an uncharacteristically mid-fleet start.
Chris Gear and Andy Foulks' Osprey was best placed on the start, with David Longford's Kestrel looking good just to leeward.
Warren-Smith was one of the first boats to tack offshore, gaining clean air in doing so, but when she tacked inshore there were still eight boats in front. Ten minutes into the race Ted Reilly's Squiblissitude had taken a lead of several lengths.
At the finish, however, Roly Wilson's Incognito had a 44-second advantage over Stephen Porter's Polyphagus, with Reilly in third place two minutes behind.
In the Mermaids, Archie Ward, Jack Haigh and Harry Edwards' Dragonfly had a cracking, though slightly slow start, allowing Anthony Eaton's Miranda to quickly make up some distance. The order of these two boats was unchanged at the finish, but Richard Prest's Halluf had sailed through to take the winning gun, 61 seconds ahead of Dragonfly.
There were also wins for Adam Gosling’s Yes! in IRC Class 5, Graham and Stephen Bailey’s Arbitrator in the Etchells and Simon Barter’s Bertie in the Sonars.