Dinghy News

Gold Cup 5/6 Jul 08

RNSA teams battled it out against Army and RAF opposition for the fleet racing Gold Cup

The day before the Gold Cup, all the talk was of monster wind and cancellations etc, undeterred 15 RN sailors turned up to do battle with the other 2 Services at Seaview YC, Isle of Wight. The format was the traditional Gold Cup, two heats, each contributing 4 boats to the final followed by a Repecharge for the last 4 spaces in the 12 boat Final. This year the event was generously sponsored by Paradigm Services.

Heat 1 - The RN charge was led by Ric Hanslip, crewed by Catherine Doran and Ben Lyons, who despite timing difficulties at the start managed to win the first heat, Pete Gardiner and crew went through to the Repecharge.

Heat 2 - The second heat was widely seen as the ‘Heat of Death’ with at least three recent Gold Cup winners in the mix. In the end their quality shone through as Bruce Burnett (ASA), Keith McQuillan (RAFSA) and Richard Spalding (crewed by Mark Flanagan and Don Willans) all made it through accompanied by Dan Vincent crewed by Sam Mettam and Ben Biglin (RNSA).

The early heats highlighted not only the strength of the offshore wind, comfortably 20 knots plus and above 30 in the strongest gusts, but also its shifty and variable nature. Because of the orientation of Seaview YC and its traditional club line starts, all the first legs were reaches followed by runs, it wasn’t until the 3rd or 4th legs that the tactical options of a beat started to open up.

Repecharge - All the unselected from Heats 1 and 2 were entered into the Repecharge from which 4 boats would advance into the final. RNSA boats included Joe Henry crewed by Claire Hilditch and Ryan Rees, and Pete Gardiner, crewed by Alastair Ley and Sarah Toulouse. Joe in the pale blue boat hit the start bang on and stretched away to a comfortable win, while behind Pete and team were narrowly edged out of the crucial 4th place.

Final - So 4 RNSA representatives entered the Final with a suitably lengthened 3 lap course. The start was the traditional ‘barking mad’ short reach to the first gybe mark where 12 boats attempted to round simultaneously. The pack of boats slipped downwind together to start the tricky beat characterised by the shifty breeze with knockdown gusts and a fierce cross tide. Keith McQuillan (RAFSA) crewed by the biggest man in the Air Force and another slightly smaller man had the best speed upwind and rapidly pulled through the fleet from around 8th to 1st . Downwind McQuillan wasn’t so flash and the rest of the fleet closed the gap, and that was the story of the rest of the race as McQuillan, crewed by Hagrid’s better shaved brother, pulled away upwind and looked over his shoulder nervously downwind.

The RNSA boats fared quite badly at the start and were trying to make their way through the fleet with the exception of Joe Henry and crew who had a nasty boom end breakage, which although they fixed, cost them a lot of time and put them firmly in last place. Richard Spalding and crew were going well, but got the wrong side of a few big shifts on the 2nd beat. By the beginning of the last lap Ric Hanslip and Dan Vincent were the 2 best placed RNSA boats overlapped with Sargent(ASA) in 5th/ 6th position, only to witness the Army boat suffer a most appalling series of calamities involving mainsheets unthreading and jib poles not setting. Having advanced a little further up the fleet at the shouting red-faced Sargeant’s expense both teams had a little inspiration on the final beat which saw Team Hanslip sail into 2nd place just ahead of Vincent and Co. in third. Keith McQuillan was uncatchable and a deserving winner of the Gold Cup for the second time in 3 years.

Admiral Alan Massey presented the prizes and thanked the Race Officer, Col John Rayner; Seaview YC for providing such excellent boats and Paradigm Services for sponsoring the event.

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