In near perfect conditions, ten IC skippers and crews raced their boats in the first Bitter End Drake's IC24 Challenge. Sailing a total of nine races in two days with winds ranging from 6 – 15 knots, shifting both left and right, competition was fierce but in the end, it was the battle of the sailmakers for first and second place.
Conch Charters, owned by Andrew Waters and whose crew included Kevin Wrigley of Quantum and Chris Haycraft in Latitude 19, sailing with Doyle's Bob Phillips, dominated the event. Racing finished on Saturday with Haycraft leading the event by three points and, although Waters tried desperately to dethrone him, it was Chris, Bob and Linda Phillips, Clair Burke and Richard Wooldridge who stood on the stage to collect the first place prize, leaving Andrew and his crew firmly in second place and Mark Plaxton with the third place honours. Special mention should go to Simon Manly from St.Martin who finished fourth overall but included three bullets in his tally.
As one of the spoils of victory, Chris' team had the opportunity to match race none other than professional sailor Dave Perry. (Dave is a winner of two Congressional Cups, two US Match Racing Championships, rules guru and now afterguard coach and rules advisor for the America's Cup Victory Challenge.) With Chris' experience on the boat and his well seasoned and practiced team, many thought that he might have the advantage but after two races, it was clear that Chris' bunch were no match for Dave Perry and his thrown together crew of Mikail Shamkin, John Glynn and Guy Eldridge.
The finish of the first race was extremely close. Haycraft led for part of the race but Dave got ahead to finish first by less than a boat length. The story was different for the last race. Perry took an early and commanding lead during the first beat, but with Chris being the local favorite, the spectators did what they could to turn the tide. One of the large catamarans, with 20 or so spectators, crossed in front of Perry at full speed, throwing a wake for him to contend with, only slowing him down slightly. It was Kevin Wrigley who came to the rescue, using 'Cheetah' the Raving in Paradise RIB to push Chris' boat down the course, closing the gap between the match racers. Perry's crew members were initially fooled thinking that Latitude 19 had gotten a killer puff. Regardless of the help, Dave and his crack crew were victorious.
Afterwards at the bar, Chris was dubbed "Second Man" and could be heard to say, "It was a humbling experience."
The ProAm proper is now taking place and at the time of writing it is Paul Cayard who came out on top after the first day's fleet racing. Hot on his heels are Russell Coutts and seven-time J/24 world champion Ken Read. All the pros and their guests were hugely impressed with the IC24 fleet and brand new sails. Russel Coutts exclaimed "we're having a blast sailing these boats". When asked what excuse he had after losing one exceptionally close race aboard 'The Black Pearl' he replied quickly 'not enough rum'.
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