Contessa 32 - Cowes Week '89

The Rogers family racing their Contessa 32 Assent in Cowes Week 2018

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Many years ago, my family chartered a CO32 named 'Strongbow' for a jaunt across the channel and a visit to the Channel Islands.

My Father lived up to his "It's not a proper cruise unless we've had several near death experiences!" mantra as we battled the overfalls between islands and learned the perils of reefing a Mainsail using a roller furling boom.

It was a lovely sailing boat that kept us moving well in a variety of challenging conditions and this fun-filled yet perilous outing was my introduction to the Contessa 32.

Fast forward after the fam's relocation to San Diego and my getting into more serious racing, I was lucky enough to put together a team and compete in the Contessa 32 class at Cowes Week '89. With my being thousands of miles away this was facilitated by my crew Ben Rogers and the Rogers family. Ben had organized a charter of 'Cantilena' out of Lymington.

What transpired was a fantastic week of racing in a 45 boat class of enthusiastic CO32 sailors. The first race in particular was one of the most exciting races I've ever done. Not yet being accustomed to the severity of the Solent tides, we were over early and had to return against the current. By the time we had cleared we were at the back of the fleet. Luckily, it was a long race so we settled in and got to work. As the race developed we realized that 'Cantilena' was a fast boat and we worked our way through the fleet steadily until we were in the top group. On the final beat to the finish we had moved into second and on the final tack we crossed the leader taking the gun! This race showed that you should never give up and always keep your head in the game. 

The rest of the week was a bit of a blur but a couple of things stood out. On board we had the late great yacht designer, Doug Peterson, a mutual friend of mine and the Rogers. There was one race where we headed across to the mainland side to round a weather mark and then work back across the Solent to a mark on the Isle of Wight. We had a big flush with us and rounded the mark probably in fifth. The next mark was almost upwind or a close fetch. As we started the leg, Doug started taking all sorts of transits and tells us to get ready to set the spinnaker! I thought he was mad but he just said 'trust me, just watch'. 

We set and I just listened to Doug with heading updates. The lead boats followed suit but were too late and we vectored the current beautifully jumping into a big lead that we never relinquished. 

Tide-O-Gram: 
The art of outfoxing your competitor utilising current: 'We just handed them a Tide-O-Gram, Squiffo!'

After the first three days of racing we had racked up three consecutive firsts and were the subject of a lot of discussion back at Club UK, where the boats were based. In the fourth race, local legend Peter Bruce came in as a ringer to try to bring our run to a halt. Peter Bruce was well known as an expert Solent racer and had written a book named Solent Hazards, which was the bible for all serious racers in that area. There was a fair amount of scuttlebutt about the impending showdown and, as if it was scripted, we had a downwind start and Cantilena and the boat Peter was helming named Roulette left the fleet behind battling it out all the way down to the first mark. We secured the inside overlap and knowing that it was going to be a parade all the way back to the finish we were feeling good. As we doused the spinnaker to round the mark Peter and crew kept the sail up and as we struggled to round they did an end-around and handed us a tide-o-gram as they swooped by. It was a masterful display by a skipper fully in tune with the race course and one I've never forgotten!

Y&Y write up and great shot of Drumbeat

Y&Y spelled my name incorrectly but it's close enough!

I've done a lot of racing since then, but my favourite trophy of all time remains the framed Beken of Cowes photo I have from that event.