A HEART-stopping 13 seconds settled one of the closest offshore races in recent memory as the RORC Cervantes Trophy Race delivered a Channel thriller from Cowes to Le Havre.<\/p>\n
Starting off from the Royal Yacht Squadron line on Saturday, the 110 nautical-mile race once again underlined the Isle of Wight\u2019s central role in cross-Channel sailing, with Cowes providing the launchpad for a fleet locked in a tactical battle for more than 20 hours.<\/p>\n
Organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club in association with France\u2019s oldest yacht club, the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des R\u00e9gates du Havre, the race is a cornerstone of the early-season offshore calendar.<\/p>\n
The Cervantes Trophy Race also marked the opening round of the RORC Cowes Offshore Series.<\/p>\n
After a delicate Channel crossing in light airs and shifting winds, the overall IRC result could scarcely have been closer.<\/p>\n
Nicolas Dezeustre\u2019s Sun Fast 3600 Princesse Gotionude II emerged the winner, by a margin of just 13 seconds on corrected time, from Nick Martin\u2019s Sun Fast 3600 Diablo, sailed double-handed ,with 21-year-old Joe Slipper.<\/p>\n
Sam White\u2019s fully crewed JPK 10.80 Mzungu was third, only 100 seconds behind, with Derek Shakespeare\u2019s J\/122 Bulldog a further 14 seconds adrift in fourth.<\/p>\n
READ MORE:<\/strong><\/p>\n Less than two minutes covered the top four, after a race shaped by constant strategic decisions from The Solent to the French coast.<\/p>\n Monohull line honours went to Greg Leonard\u2019s Class40 Swift, which completed the course in 17 hours, 32 mins and 28 seconds.<\/p>\n First IRC boat home was Graeme Lewis\u2019 CM60 Venomous, while Peter Coote\u2019s Dazcat 1295 Slinky Malinki topped both the multihull line honours and corrected time.<\/p>\n The finish in Le Havre carried special resonance, given the shared history between the French hosts and Cowes-based offshore racing.<\/p>\n The prizegiving was attended by flag officers from both clubs.<\/p>\n Diablo\u2019s Nick Martin summed up the mood.<\/p>\n \u201cThirteen seconds is just bizarre,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSecond overall by that margin hurts a little, but really I\u2019m thrilled. It was proper Channel racing, and Cowes gave us the perfect springboard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A HEART-stopping 13 seconds settled one of the closest offshore races in recent memory as the RORC Cervantes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[262820,68039,89247,262817,2000,299,36,26181,262821,262819,262818,14741],"class_list":{"0":"post-940957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-13-seconds","9":"tag-channel","10":"tag-channel-crossing","11":"tag-cowes","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-france","15":"tag-nick-martin","16":"tag-rorc-cervantes-trophy-race","17":"tag-royal-ocean-racing-club","18":"tag-royal-yacht-squadron","19":"tag-sun"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116526219707816313","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}