11 Contessa 26s entered the race this year. An excellent turn out. Conditions were pleasant and it was an unusually straightforward sail in a predominantly North to north west wind ranging from 8 to 16 kts but with some meaningful holes on the south and east sides of the island with the wind eventually settling late afternoon from the west. This enabled the fleet to reach and run as far as Bembridge Ledge and to return from there to Cowes on the wind.
These conditions tended to favour larger and longer waterline boats, but as usual there were some respectable Co 26 class and O/A finishing places achieved.
In the IRC section they were:
High Potential 4th in class (and 25th O/A and winner of the Jeremy Rogers Trophy)
Meow 11th in class
Elinor 15th in class
Concession 21st in class
Dark Horse 23rd in class.
ISC section:
Jiminy Cricket 6th in class (and 11th O/A and winner of the David Sadler Trophy)
Quincy 9th in class
Bijou 11th in class
La Mouette 18th in class
Red Dragon 22nd in class
Tatjana 32nd in class
Nimue Dns.
It was a great pleasure to see Kurt Brewee who sailed Bijou over again from the Netherlands for the race and did well. Another long distance entrant welcomed to the race was Dino Castro who brought Dark Horse over for the race.”