Page 26 - Yachter Winter 2019

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RACING REPORT
COWES WEEK 2019 A view from The Hound
As many of you will know, the racing at Cowes Week is run by teams
of Race Officials from nine Solent Clubs who come together to run the Regatta each year. Some teams combine to run certain areas of the event but for the past several years, the Royal Southampton Yacht Club team has been asked to take sole responsibility for running ‘semi-autonomous’ racing for some of the faster and sportier day boat classes. That means that, rather than using any of the yellow “fixed” racing marks, it involves the team in setting up a course using large inflatable laid marks to suit the wind for each race. It can be a tricky job to get right and a major responsibility but it’s part of what the team is used to doing year-round.
Being relatively new to the Club, Cowes Week 2018 was my first real experience
of the Regatta when I acted as ‘second
in command’ to our Chief Race Officer, JohnWhyte.This year that job fell to me and I had the task of putting together and coordinating our RSYC team.The Club’s move from OceanVillage could have had
an adverse effect on our Race Management Team but the transfer of race administration to the nearby SWAC premises has meant that we still have a major Southampton base with arguably more support than before and we retain a strong and very able team.
Fellow race official David Martin is responsible for maintaining detailed records of “who has done what” on the Race Management Team (RMT) and skilfully coordinated teams to run our Club Series
throughout the year so we were well placed to bring together a Cowes Week team with the right mix of skills for the jobs we were asked to do: those were to use our RSYC CommitteeVessel“The Hound”to run “White Group” (day boat) racing for the first four days and then to act as a stand-by boat for any course shortening that might be required on the following three days.
Fortuitously, in the weeks leading up to Cowes Week, the Club was very generously donated a RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat)
by Club Member Paul Frampton.That meant that we then had two Club RIBs which ensured our independence to lay
the requisite race marks.That’s a skilled job and, to hone our skills, we organised for a National Mark Layer to come to the Club and teach some volunteers best practice and
some ‘tips and tricks’.That preparation paid- off as the two mark-laying teams delivered excellent service on our race days.
As further general preparation, we held a very useful Practice day a couple of weeks before the Regatta which everyone involved found extremely beneficial and which also paid dividends during the Regatta.That practice also involved David Martin who volunteered use of his 41ft yacht Sabrina
for use as a ‘pin-end’ boat (the boat at the farther end of the race start line).
There have been many complimentary comments made about the RSYC team’s delivery of racing and we should all be proud of our achievements.We have been asked to do the same job for Cowes Week in 2020 but this time to run White Group racing on every day of the Regatta.
THERE HAVE BEEN MANY COMPLIMENTARY COMMENTS MADE ABOUT THE RSYC TEAM’S DELIVERY OF RACING AND WE SHOULD ALL BE PROUD OF OUR ACHIEVEMENTS