Tiger Trophy 2005

The 2005 Tiger Trophy was unusual for one reason. Not because there were less entries, in fact the event continues to attract more and more sailors of a very high calibre. The reason was that it became the first light airs Tiger Trophy that most people could remember !

The racing was held under the same format of 3 handicap races on Saturday with one discard, followed by Sundays 2 hour pursuit race that had to be counted.

Unfortunately, for a large number of the high performance fleet this race proved to be their Achilles heel. In the very light winds the slow handicap boat sailors prevailed, with a very well sailed GP14 taking line honours, followed by the eventual, and well deserved Tiger Trophy winning Merlin Rocket. Congratulations to them !

How did the skiffs fair ?

Race 1 got underway after a short postponement in 8-10 knots that proved to be the most there was going to be for the weekend. However, Ian Trotter and Sten (Richard Stenhouse) made the best of relatively clear starts to jump clear of the pursing skiffs, and indeed held up with the back end of the 49er and RS800 fleets. They proceeded to swap places on more occasions than I can remember, and in doing so lost ground to the charging Graeme Oliver with his new Tony and Guy haircut !

At the finish Sten got the better of Ian, and with Graeme by then in very close proximity, the 3 skiffs scored well overall, as well as being the first single handers home.

Race 2 saw Sten come into the start near the committee boat, and with seconds to go had a 470 take a liking to his windward side, at which point Sten had to politely point out that the start was by now in the opposite direction to the way the 470 had pushed him. This gave the others a good chance to get away, until a well sailed Flying Dutchman unfurled his jib in a block of flats wind stopping technique with about 2 seconds to go. However, Ian, Graeme and Richard Smith got away and were not going to be easily caught, with Graeme recording a well deserved Ovingtonsy. However, Richard Smith goes down as pulling off the best start of the event as he swerved his way at speed past a confused RIB and 3 or 4 420’s who thought it a good idea to site 10 metres to windward of the committee boat and have a chat as the gun went. All this whilst actually not connected to the trapeze scored my highest artistic impression vote.

Race 3 was dominated by Kit, who was not going to let anyone get near her, and when eventually Sten closed in for what he thought was going to be the killing overtaking manoeuvre she ‘slam dunked’ him twice on the short beat to the finish, leaving spectators and sailors alike in no doubt that they shouldn’t mess with her !

Overnight, the results in the skiff fleet were very close, with 4 or 5 boats in with a good chance the next day, and Will Crocker showing he was becoming a force in the class, especially when University holiday kicks in.

Curry was on the menu that evening, which was hoped to provide wind the next day. It did, however, most of it had been used up by starting time.

The 2 hour pursuit race was held in a light and dying breeze, and although Graeme, who seems to have found newly untapped upwind speed headed the starting group for the skiffs at the first mark, the race was to be characterised by large holes and small patches of wind. To say that I new who was where around the course would be untrue, as the entire fleet sailed almost on mass down the second from last leg, all desperately gybing to sail into something more than they had.

Top position finally going to Sten who slid past Ian, Graeme and Richard to score a well deserved 16th overall out of the 250 entries