RoyalThames David Deihl Trophy — 22 May '10

22 May –23 May

A weekend of windward-leeward fleet racing for Farr 45s

Provisional Results after all protests

When a boat wins an eight-race, nine-boat series with a score of 30 points, you and her crew know they have been in a bit of gun-fight.  And when the top four boats in that series are separated by only 5 points, you know that more than one gunslinger was involved.

So although she finally carried off the prize Niklas Zennstrom's Rán did anything but run away with the Royal Thames David Diehl trophy for Farr 45s, sailed over the weekend of 22^nd - 23^rd May in The Solent. Eight windward/ leeward races, each lasting around 45 minutes and with no discard, made this a series where every error cost places and where no one boat of the closely-matched nine could dominate. Of the eight races sailed, five had different winners. In the eight races sailed, the biggest winning margin was 42 seconds, the tightest two seconds. In only one race did the gap between first and last exceed two minutes. Helped by glorious sunshine, an easterly sea breeze that steadied more or less along the direction of the tidal stream and course legs adjusted, sometimes mid-race, to give true beats and square runs on every leg this was Solent big boat sailing at its absolute best.

Rán's opening day scoreline of 4^th, 4^th, 8^th and 4^th demonstrated that this much-fancied newcomer to the class could not count on walking over the established residents.  Simon Henning's Alice 2, with Mike Henning steering, was series leader after four races with a second, a first, another second and then a fifth - but just as the grey boat's game kicked up a notch on day two, so the wheels somewhat came off the black boat's campaign.  It was that sort of series.

Stewart Whitehead's Rebel had a good win, leading pretty well all the way, in race 1 on Saturday, the lightest air race of the series as the wistful south-easterly gradient zephyr began to put on weight. Alice 2 won the next as Rebel disappeared into the pack, not to emerge again until the final race where she claimed a second  to keep her in the running for the title. Meantime, Jerry Otter's Werewolf - always a boat to watch in this class - had her day, not to mention her weekend, spoiled by being dsq'd from a win in race 3 for a rule 18 infringement against Jack Pringle's Fraxious. 

If further evidence were needed that the already hot racing in this class is hotting-up even more it is to be found in the number of protests.  Three years ago, there were no full-hearing protests and the RYA Arbitration procedure sorted what few rules disagreements there were. Last year, the Arbitration procedure bucked under the load and proper hearings were needed - time consuming and clumsy.  This year, under the chairmanship of one of RTYC's dual-ticket International Judges and Umpires, match racing procedure was adopted and on-the-water hearings were held at the end of racing. In the hearing, Werewolf was found to have given insufficient room at the leeward turning mark to Fraxious (room, it need hardly be said, to which Werewolf believed Fraxious was not entitled). Perhaps the most apposite comment came later from Fraxious' owner Jack Pringle commenting about the excitement of the entire series: 'A bit hairy at times! I thought I was going to end up with a Farr 40.'

Werewolf's other win, in race 4, was a bitter consolation prize since come the final tally she lost the series overall by just four points.

On Sunday Rán combined cracking starts with ironing-out some small crewing errors that had plagued on day 1 to post two consecutive bullets. Shadow, the other newcomer to the fleet and chartered by Royal Thames member Tony Buckingham for the season, emerged into the light with a second and then a third having had a speckled first day (3-7-1-5).

By now the heat was really on and the starts - crucially important in such short, tight races - were becoming keenly contested, to put it no more strongly. Both Fraxious and Alice 2 were called OCS in race 6 and had to return.  Alice came ninth and that was probably the end of her challenge, despite avenging herself with a win in race 7.  Meanwhile Rán's winning streak was brutally curtailed when she and Shadow went up the left of the beat and others went out right to gain advantage from the steadily gathering flood stream. Shadow recovered to fourth but Rán languished in seventh.

Then the fate of both Shadow and Alice 2 was finally sealed in the final race when along with Exabyte 4 all three were called OCS.  All returned and started cleanly but being at the back of the grid in this company is seldom a winning ploy. Shadow was 7^th, Alice 2 8^th and Exabyte 9^th.

Any one of half-a-dozen could have won this series and at some stage or other at least five looked as though they might.  Rán did.

Final Results. 1^st Rán (Niklas Zennstrom) 4-8-4-4-1-1-7-1= 30 points; 2^nd Shadow (Tony Buckingham) 3-7-1-5-2-3-4-7 = 32; 3^rd Werewolf (Jerry Otter) 6-2-dsq-1-3-2-8-2 = 34; 4^th Rebel (Stewart Whitehead) 1-6-6-2-9-5-2-4= 35; 5^th Alice 2 (Simon Henning) 2-1-2-6-8-9-1-8= 37;

6^th Fraxious (Jack Pringle) 5-5-8-3-5-7-3-3-= 43; 7^th Exabyte 4 (Shaun Frohlich) 8-3-3-7-4-4-6-9 = 44; 8^th Atomic (Tony Langley) 7-9-5-9-7-6-5-5 = 53; 9^th Espresso Martini (Jeff Blue) 9-4-7-8-6-8-9-6 = 57.

Notice of Series and entry form for this and the other regattas in our 2010 Inshore Series for Farr 45s is here.

The entry form, downloadable as a Word document for ease of completion and return, is here.

The Sailing Instructions are here

Amendment 1 to the Sailing Instructions (concerning start times) is here

This is the season programme:

 Race Schedule

          All events in the central Solent, first signal 1030 Saturday, 1000 Sunday.

           April 10^th - 12^th.  Fleet practice weekend. Practice starts and other evolutions on Saturday, 4 x informal windward/ leeward races on Sunday.

           May 22^nd - 23^rd. Royal Thames David Diehl Trophy. A weekend of up to 8 x windward/ leeward races.

           July 3^rd - 4^th. Royal Thames Imperial Trophy. A weekend of match racing (limit 10 boats)

           September 4^th- 5^th. Royal Thames Staples Trophy. A weekend of two-boat team racing (limit 5 teams of two boats).

           October 11^th (Monday) end of season dinner at 60 Knightsbridge, London, SW1X 7LF.

 Separate NoRs and Sailing Instructions will be issued for each regatta in the series.