Cowes Week competitors faced a new level of challenge on Thursday, as they counted all races sailed rather than discarding their worst score, following the loss of two days of racing due to high winds earlier this week.
Fortunately, Thursday's slightly calmer conditions allowed all fleets to enjoy a good day's racing on the Solent, despite strong tides causing a mix of general and individual recalls across many starts. The generally light north-north-westerly winds provided welcome relief after the menacing winds from Wednesday. With just a couple of points separating positions in many cases, the pressure was on for competitors to perform their best on the penultimate day of the event.
As Afloat previously reported, Irish tactician Mark Mansfield of Royal Cork and Alan Roche of Dun Laoghaire's National Yacht Club sailing on John Smart's Cowes week Class 3 leader, Jukebox, are now five points ahead, but with no discard, nothing is decided until the final race is completed. Jukebox is also in contention for the IRC boat of the week (Black group) as they only have had two firsts and two seconds on the scoresheet.
The Royal Yacht Squadron outer start line produced another sight to behold, with three of the biggest classes (IRC 0, IRC1, and the Cape 31) kicking off proceedings. There was all to play for in IRC 0, with Ian Atkins' GP42 Dark n Stormy having a four-point advantage over Tony Langley's TP52 Gladiator going into today's race. However, Gladiator had her day today with a race win while Dark n Stormy took fifth. This now puts them on equal points going into the final race today.
