RORC Cowes – Dinard – St Malo Race  -  Start: RYS Line Cowes | Friday 07 July 2023

Organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club in association with UNCL - Pôle Course du YCF, Yacht Club de Dinard, Société Nautique de la Baie de St. Malo, Junior Offshore Group (JOG) and the Royal Yacht Squadron.

The biggest offshore race so far for 2023 will be a memorable one for RORC member Christian Zugel. Racing Tschüss 2, skippered by Johnny Mordaunt, the Volvo 70 has set a new Monohull Race Record for the Cowes Dinard St Malo Race. Tschüss 2 completed the 151nm course in an elapsed time of 10 hours 56 minutes 18 seconds winning the Sandison Memorial Salver. After IRC time correction was calculated for the 179 boats racing under IRC, Tschüss 2 completed the hattrick as overall winner of the Cowes Dinard St Malo Race, winning the King Edward VII Cup, dating back to 1906.

At the beginning of the year, Christian Zugel acquired the Volvo 70 formerly Rolex Fastnet Race winner Wizard earlier this year. Project Manager Johnny Mordaunt trusted in the talents of boat builder Jason Carrington and designer Juan Kouyoumdjian to get the boat back to race condition, including fixing a damaged canting keel.

“This is my first proper offshore race, I wanted to experience racing a Volvo 70 and when the opportunity came to buy this boat it looked like the perfect choice,” commented Christian Zugel.  “Back in January, we did not even know if the boat would be ready for this summer, so this first offshore race could not have been any better. We had great teamwork, especially calling the wind shifts which were called superbly. During the race, we had times when we were going well over 20 knots but she is so easy on the helm, until you push to the limit and then it gets a bit hairy! She is a joy to drive and to sail. I became a RORC member this year, I have stayed at the London Clubhouse and dinner was delicious. I am looking forward to visiting the RORC in Cowes during Cowes Week, where we will be competing in the Ker40+ Tschüss, so see you in Cowes!”

Tschüss 2  Crew: Christian Zugel, Al Fraser, Campbell Field, Chris Mason, Christopher Welch, Jack Lawrence, Jeremy Elliott, Johnny Mordaunt, Lewis Fitzgerald, Neal McDonald, Oliver Bayes-Shelton, Simon Johnson, Trystan Seal.

Tschüss 2  Skipper Johnny Mordaunt commented: “Neal (MacDonald), Campbell (Field) and Jeremy Elliott played a stormer, but the whole team has to contribute, everybody was part of the win. Tactician Neal did a great job getting us going at the start; Tschüss is a big boat for the Solent but we had a good plan, which we kept to. Keeping calm and in good shape before we went into The Channel really paid dividends, both then and later on. Getting the right side of the shifts was key and well done to Campbell (Field) on that. Tschüss 2  is a new project but most of this team has raced together on the Ker40+ Tschüss and for me, working as a team is so important.”

Multihull Line Honours was won by Romain Pilliard’s 75ft Trimaran Use it again, which was also awarded the Yacht Club de France Shield for outstanding achievement. After MOCRA time correction, the overall winner of the Multihull Class was Loïc Escoffier’s Ocean Fifty Lodigroup.

The inaugural IRC Two-Handed European Champion is Didier Gaudoux's MN35 Lann Ael 3, which was the class winner for both the La Trinité-Cowes Race and the Cowes Dinard St Malo Race. A full report will be posted shortly.

Fast reaching conditions in the Cowes Dinard St Malo Race favoured the boats racing in IRC Super Zero, Peter Morton’s Maxi 72 Notorious also broke the previous race record but was second to Tschüss 2 in elapsed time and after IRC Correction. Maxi 72 Notorious wins the Derek Boyer Trophy.

IRC Zero

Niklas Zennstrom’s CF 520 Rán was third overall and winner of IRC Zero for the Lloyds of London Salver. Rán had a magnificent battle with NMD54 Teasing Machine with RORC Vice Commodore Eric de Turckheim at the helm. After IRC time correction Rán beat Teasing Machine by just 76 seconds in the 151nm race. Jean Pierre Barjon’s Botin 65 Spirit Of Lorina was also in the hunt for IRC Zero, but after IRC time correction was just under five minutes behind Rán.

IRC One

Didier Gaudoux's MN35 Lann Ael 3 was the winner of IRC One winning the Noryema Trophy and the IRC Two-Handed Slingshot Trophy. Jaques Pelletier’s Milon 41 L’Ange de Milon was second in IRC One by 19 minutes after time correction. Third by under four minutes after IRC time correction was Ed Bell’s JPK 1180 Dawn Treader.

IRC Two

Winning the Yeoman Bowl, for best IRC corrected time was Ross Applebey’s Oyster 48 Scarlet Oyster. An impressive performance by Nick Martin’s Sun Fast 3600 Diablo, racing Two-Handed with Cal Finlayson resulted in runner-up for both IRC Two and third in IRC Two-Handed. Last year’s class winner François & Corentin Lognoné MC 34 Nutmeg Solidaire en Peloton was third in IRC Two for the 2023 edition.

Scarlet Oyster, along with a number of boats, was called OCS at the start of the Cowes Dinard St Malo. Ross Applebey described the comeback.

“We were a bit surprised to be called over at the start. We then had to drop the kite, hoist the jib and turn around upwind against the tide. To get back over the line cost us about 11 minutes, which was really painful,” commented Ross. “However, that re-start may have given us a different perspective, and incentive, we got a lot of things right after that. We know about a useful back-eddy at The Casquets and we could see the boats offshore really struggling. Towards the end we had a lot of upwind work in just enough wind for Scarlet. The team worked really hard to keep her going. We did run out of luck getting the wrong side of a wind shift close to the finish, but we had built up enough of a buffer, so that it didn’t matter. Looking at the season, we feel like we have a good shout at winning our class. We have managed to win our class three times and it looks like it may all come down to the Fastnet, as it should do!”

IRC Three

Five JPK 1010s took the top places after time correction in IRC Three. From Le  Havre, Jean-André Hebel’s Les P'tits Doudous en Duo, racing double-handed with Jerome Aubert, was the class winner and received the Yacht Club de Dinard Trophy. Second was the Gosport crew racing Mark Brown’s Jetpack, which was just over 11 minutes ahead of the highly successful Jean-François Chériaux’s Ad Hoc, racing double-handed with Alain Peron. Oliviee Lurton’s WASA 55 Let’s Go was the winner of the new Under-25 youth prize the Newcombe Hoare Trophy.

IRC Four

Classic Swan 38 Xara, skippered by Jonathan Rolls was second overall in 2022 and this year was the class winner of IRC Four, winning the IR Trophy. Second on IRC time correction by just over 10 minutes, after racing for over 24-hours, was Daniel Hirsch’s Norlin 37 China Girl. Third in class was Florent Le Sage’s Ron Holland 34 Elendyl from the host yacht club in St Malo; Société Nautique de la Baie de Saint-Malo.

The Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Cowes Dinard St Malo Race is the 12th race of the RORC Season’s Points Championship, the largest racing series in the world of offshore racing. On July 22nd the 13th race of the series will be the 50th edition Rolex Fastnet Race. As of today, 09 July, 468 boats have entered the world-famous offshore race.
 

Image: Tschuss 2 Crew © Al Fraser/Tschuss 2