The De Guingand Bowl race provided another exciting chapter in the 2011 RORC Season's Points Championship. The RORC Race Committee decided to send the fleet on an upwind start, westward out of the Solent, before turning east, down the south side of the Isle of Wight and offshore after St. Catherine's Point, to a top mark mid-Channel: the Greenwich Light Vessel. The fleet then turned for home, a grueling 50-mile upwind leg to finish back in the Solent. Most of the fleet enjoyed a tactical race with many twists and turns along the way.

"The course of roughly 127 miles was designed to give the fleet options. To make the most of tides but also giving them the opportunity to go offshore in search of more wind on several occasions during the race. These factors changed throughout and kept the competitors focused on tactical decisions, as well as boat handling," commented RORC Racing Manager, Ian Loffhagen.

The start off the Squadron Line was a gentle one with ten knots from the northwest, however as the fleet entered the Western Solent big gusts and wind shifts had the fleet concentrating on sail trim. The breeze built as the fleet turned east and with an increased sea state, the competitors in the De Guingand Bowl Race enjoyed some fast running conditions before blasting offshore bound for the Greenwich Light Vessel. With blues skies punctuated by scattered clouds, the 71-strong fleet enjoyed a day of fantastic offshore action. Just before sunset, the breeze shifted north and colder air, often in excess 20 knots, gave a chilling night sail. By dawn the breeze had abated somewhat and returned to the northwest and by early afternoon, the majority of the RORC fleet had been accounted for.

The course for the this weekends De Guingand Bowl Race has now been published.
Click here to download the course

The Royal Ocean Racing Club season continues to be extremely popular with another bumper entry for the De Guingand Bowl Race. Over 75 yachts are expected on the Squadron Line this Saturday morning, ranging from cutting edge custom yachts to traditional cruising yachts. Boats from all over Europe will be competing for class prizes and overall honours. The third race in the RORC Season's Points Championship starts and finishes in the Solent and exemplifies the variety of courses in this year's RORC Seasons Points Championship.

Piet Vroon's custom Ker 46, Tonnerre de Breskens, returns to RORC racing after winning her class at this year's RORC Caribbean 600. The sky blue flyer, which was RORC Yacht of the Year for 2010, has undergone some rig and sail modifications in Breskens before arriving in Hamble this week to continue their racing programme, leading up to the Rolex Fastnet Race this August.

Chaz Ivill's Grand Soleil 54, John B, won IRC One in last month's Cervantes Trophy Race. "John B will be competing in six RORC races this year, including the Rolex Fastnet Race," explained Chaz Ivill. "Competing in the De Guingand Bowl is just part of this year's offshore program. The core crew has been very successful and has been together for five years, this will be our third Fastnet campaign on the trot. However, John B has a blend of youth and experience and we have three sailors new to offshore sailing. Sam Cooper is just 18 and a student, Nathan Hanley is 22 and a sailmaker and Matt Mills has just finished University and is the son of regular crew, Tim Mills. Also William Broughton will be joining us this week for his first race on John B, William is eighteen and studying at Plymouth University."

The first race to France for the 2011 RORC Season's Points Championship proved to be a real cracker with several classes enjoying some extremely competitive racing. With over 100 entries for the race, the Royal Yacht Squadron Line was a cauldron of activity and a magical sight as the fleet set off downwind under spinnaker towards The Needles. After a beat around the south side of the Isle of Wight, the fleet rounded the Nab Tower to bear away for a fast passage across the English Channel. The 2011 RORC Cervantes Trophy Race provided some spectacular racing.

The majority of the fleet completed the 125-mile course in less than 20 hours. Gray and Laidlaw's Farr 52, Bob, took line honours by nearly three hours and won the Cervantes Trophy for best yacht overall on corrected time.

"We had a great Cervantes," explained Bob's trimmer and driver, John Brinkers. "The blast reach in fresh conditions was very exciting. We had 29 knots of breeze at one stage, blasting along under jib top and genoa staysail on the leg from Nab Tower to the buoy off Le Havre. As we came off one big wave, the boat accelerated to just under 22 knots with big whoops from the crew. All credit to skipper Brett Aarons and the Bob team for impressive crew work. They did a great job."

The Cervantes Trophy Race course has now been published click on the link below to download a copy.

2011 Cervantes Race Course

A RORC Easter Challenge where competitors not only head home wiser after three days of coaching, but also with suntans...so the July-like conditions continued for Easter Sunday, the final day of competition.

Racing got underway in the morning with just enough northwesterly gradient coming out of Southampton Water for the race committee to set courses to the north of Ryde Sands. The first race was held in 5-10 knots while in the second, the breeze dropped off after the second start.

Despite a protest over their start in today's second race that might have cost them the top spot, Rob Gray and Sam Laidlaw's Farr 52, Bob, won IRC 1 by a comfortable four points, the biggest boat in the RORC Easter Challenge fleet benefitting from clear air in the light winds.

With a forecast indicating no wind on the Solent, the race committee and competitors were blessed in being able to get two races in on the second day of the RORC Easter Challenge, once again held in unseasonably summer-like conditions.

While the first start was scheduled for 1000, a windless Solent saw racing postponed for three hours. Competitors were kept occupied in the Cowes Yacht Haven Events Centre with a valuable talk from Jim Saltonstall on race preparation.

Early afternoon the race committee made the brave call to get underway on a course off Hill Head despite the apparent mill pond. In fact there was wind off the water and a meaningful race was held. As women's match racer Josie Gibson, helming the new Mat 1010 in IRC 3, observed: "It was really good of them to try and do it, because the alternative was to wait for the new breeze. It wasn't totally unfair but it was just very very light. There was an awful lot of shear. At the top we were getting 5-6 knots but it was really glassy on the water."

At the end of the first race the wind began to veer into the southwest as the sea breeze prevailed and for race two, the wind picked up to an unexpected 13-14 knots with the tide running left to right across the course on the beat. From the first race, where crews were being sat down to leeward, for race two they were up on the weather rail, fully hiking.

Cervantes Trophy Race. Starts Saturday, April 30 from RYS. First warning signal at 0750. Organised by RORC in association with the Société des Régates du Havre and the Royal Yacht Squadron.

The RORC Caribbean 600 was the first points scoring race for the 2011 RORC Season's Points Championship. However, the Cervantes Trophy Race marks the start of the RORC European race circuit with eleven races scheduled for destinations in Northern France, Holland, Ireland and many ports of call in the United Kingdom.

The majority of the RORC fleet for the Cervantes Trophy is an eclectic mix of performance cruising boats. Gray and Laidlaw's Farr 52, Bob, is the scratch boat on handicap but will be on a very busy start line festooned with canvas. Four examples of the Tall Ships Youth Trust's Challenge 72 are entered and will be hoping for fresh conditions. John Stapleton's First 44.7, Vespucci's Black Sheep, was second in class last year and may well feature in the results.

Traditionally the RORC Easter Challenge has been an event for full oilskins and thermals to counter the freezing cold and driving rain. For the first day of the RORC's annual European season opener, conditions were more like August, albeit with the wind cooled by the still chilly Solent. With this afternoon's first race held in six knots, followed by a puffy breeze gusting at times to an unforecast 12 knots during race two, combined with a building flood tide, it was a tricky day for the tacticians, but with the unseasonal sunshine there were no complaints.

In a class dominated by Ker designs it was the Mark Mills-designed King 40 Tokoloshe of South African Mike Bartholomew that posted two bullets in IRC One. Rob Gray and Sam Laidlaw's perennial Farr 52 Bob, the biggest boat competing, led the way around the race course with a sufficient enough advantage in both races to finish the day with two seconds.

One of the pre-race favourites following her Rolex Commodores' Cup win last year, Antix, the Ker 39 of Irishman Anthony O'Leary, had a disappointing first race. "There would be a lot of beeping," said O'Leary when asked to describe what went wrong. "We had a terrible start. After that there was no place to recover, but the second race was fun and it was a lot more pleasant than the last two Easter freeze-outs. It was bloody cold and wet last year..." Antix, which has had no changes made to her since her Rolex Commodores' Cup victory, is currently lying sixth overall in IRC One.

Summer looks set to come early as the RORC 2011 season opener gets underway on the Solent this Friday with the first races of the Club's annual RORC Easter Challenge and mostly sunny weather and light to moderate winds forecast. Racing is set to take place over three days, concluding on Easter Sunday.

The RORC Easter Challenge stands alone in the Club's calendar as aside from enabling competitors to brush the cobwebs off after the winter break, it is also set up as a training regatta complete with on the water coaching.

"It is unique, because while it is a proper regatta and people take it seriously, they want to win it, we change the rules to allow outside assistance," says RORC CEO, Eddie Warden Owen. "So it is a training regatta, with an opportunity to be coached while racing."