Skandia Cowes Week 2006 day five one designs

For a while this morning it was looking unlikely that the XOD fleet would race but as the wind settled down to a mean in the 11-15 knot region it was decided that the 73-strong fleet would be sent down to the eastern Solent for a committee vessel start just south of Mother Bank. Some of the lighter crews have been struggling in the testing conditions this week but some new names adorned the podium today with class stalwart Dave Tabb in Zoe showing some great boatspeed in the choppy conditions to hold off the hard-charging Rory Paton in Diana by a winning margin of 58 seconds. The Victory's saw a big return to form of Jeremy Lear's Zinnia who demonstrated excellent boat handling right from the starting gun and sailed on to a comfortable 1 minute 27 second victory over the Bancroft and Taylor owned Zest. The Solent Sunbeams and Seaview Mermaids got away together under glorious sunny skies for an excellent afternoon of racing that saw Alan Stannah's Jenny convincingly head the Sunbeam fleet whilst J Sandiford-Haigh brought the evergreen Jade home in the Mermaid fleet by just 22 seconds ahead of a very bunched fleet.

Starting from a committee boat line near the Elephant marker buoy the Contessa 32 fleet had a tough three and a half hour race in the western Solent. Once again it was Ray Rouse sailing Blanco who really made the best of the conditions with superb crew work bringing the fleet home with a commanding 3 minute 28 second lead. The Sigma 33's who also started on the committee boat line saw a very close run race with Richard Griffith's Cerefe and P Wright's Ephesian dicing for the lead all around a three and a half hour course. Cerefe just pipped Ephesian by a slender 5 seconds on the final beat to take the winners gun whilst Michael Birmingham's Oxygen crossed for third some 38 seconds adrift. The Sunsail 37 fleet had an eventful race with a few downwind death rolls and some heavy bunching at the marks but at the finish it was Mike Steel on Malcolm Hollis that took the winner's gun convincingly ahead of Jonathan Perry's Spring Law. The Sunsail's are having a terrific week with tremendous hospitality tents in the Cowes Yacht Haven and a great carnival atmosphere throughout the fleet and it looks like being a tough battle for the overall crown as both Jonathan Perry on Spring Law and Nick Willis's Pall Europe (who finished third today) vie it out for the top spot.

One of the other overnight talking points was the dominance of Graham Bailey in the ever-competitive Etchells fleet who, after yet another race win today, sits clear at the top of the overall White Group standings. Bailey revelled in the conditions today, sailing away from the fleet after a perfect pin end start into a final finishing delta of 2 minutes 13 seconds with the rest of the fleet scratching their heads as to how to stop this winning streak. Graham came ashore to once again learn that his wife Julia had won in the intense International Dragon fleet sailing Aimee to another very close 22 second race win with quite a few shoreside wags wondering just how good the Bailey's must be when they sail together?