Toasted in Talisker: Njord wins Golin Challenge Cup - again

Owen & Josy Pay's Njord won the Royal Thames Alfred Golin Challenge Cup for the second year running over Saturday and Sunday 14th-15th May in the first-ever Talisker Cowes Keelboat Championship regatta. The Scotch Whisky producer is sponsoring the series of five 4-race weekends in addition to the regular week-on-week racing out of Cowes from shoreline starts. This first event of the new series was run by Royal Thames Yacht Club's race committee led by Gillian Smith.

Njord's win was as close as can be: Njord and Tim Blackwell's Virago not only tied on points but had exactly the same combination of scores, thus deciding the outcome of the trophy on the result of the last race in which the two boats had met. In that, Njord was first and Virago was second.

In the Darings, consistency paid and Decoy with three 2nd places and a fifth just pipped Damsel with four fourths. Consistency would have paid even more handsomely for Scott Macleod with three firsts and a second had he not been nailed port-and-starboard by Hamish Janson in Streak right at the start of the first race. The breeze had banged briefly hard left in the 30 seconds before the start, leaving those at the port, pin, end of the line unable to cross on starboard. Scott and Charles Perry in Defiant tacked onto port only to find themselves in turn defied by Hamish, streaking along on starboard. Hamish altered course to avoid the two boats and protested that both had broken rule 10 (port keeps clear of starboard) and later that same evening the protest committee agreed. Scott's defence that it was all Charles's fault and had not Defiant in those last few seconds tacked close under his bow, preventing him from ducking and clearing both boats, he would have been able to keep clear was not seen by the protest committee as sufficent to absolve him of his obligation when on port to keep clear of boats on starboard.

The shifting and patchy north-westerly breeze, notorious in The Solent for its instability, caused problems for more than just these two Darings. The Club's mark-shifter boat was kept busy all weekend as the race committee did its best, largely with success, to keep pace with the swings and roundabouts and give the competitors true beats and square runs.

Four XODs made their debut in the series in this the class's centenary year with consistency again paying off and S. Ross's Aora taking the weekend with three second places in the three races the class sailed.

Follow this link to see and order photographs from Solent photographer Eddie Mays of the Daring, Dragon and XOD racing in the first of this season's Talisker Keelboat Championship weekend regattas.

Results from the weekend, and of the entire series, are posted here.