Sailing at Cowes Week

Tuesday saw winds peaking at 23 knots for the Artemis Challenge. Eight boats took to the start line for some really close racing and a true spectacle of how exciting the Open 60 are fully powered up. Ecover 3 and Aviva challenged for the start line and we all sailed hard and fast through the showers towards the Needles.

With an increasing wind and the strong tide against us, the Needles fairway saw us on Aviva struggle with a sail change at the edge of the Shingles bank. We needed to tack and unfortunately damaged our genoa during the sail change. Once clear of Bridge Buoy we were able to turn the corner and set off in hot pursuit of Pindar, BT, Ecover and Hugo Boss.

At St Catherines point on the South of the Isle of Wight, we hoisted spinnakers and sailed at speeds around twenty knots. The sky had cleared and the sailing was fantastic.

At Bembridge edge we gybed and headed back to the Solent past No Mans Land Fort. From here we converged with the remaining 1000 boats on the water for Cowes Week. This took some manoeuvring to stay clear of everyone while we headed for the line in fifth place.

The race was fast with some good sailing and everyone onboard enjoyed it. Guests from Aviva, the media and the decathlete, Dean 'The Machine' Macey all experienced some great Open 60 sailing.

- Dee