WITH a blistering forecast promising winds of Force four-five, possibly six or seven, the fleet in the final day of the Chartering International IRC Championships passed a very tough test of their sailing skills.

As the competitors set off from the start line near Fastnet Insurance in a south-westerly breeze, ever eager to get on, the Class Zero and Super Zero boats were early at the start en masse and a general recall sent them away to await a new start sequence after the Class 3 start.

Class 1 made a clean start and White Knuckles, owned by Mervyn Hughes stole a march on Hamble based Exabyte 2, owned by Shaun Frohlich, to lead by half a minute at the first mark, with Royal Blue Addict and Longbow closely contending third and fourth places.

Exabyte 2 held on to her position to take second place on corrected time but was overhauled by Bare Knuckles who took first, with Kylidh taking her second prize of the regatta.

Two of the Class 2 boats again found themselves on the wrong side of the line at the start, with the Z flag flying, and paid the penalty.

The Office driven by Nigel Musto took first place, followed by the consistent Flair IV and Highland Spirit, with new boat, a Her 32 Voodoo Chile, one minute behind.

Not to be left out, three of the Class 3 boats were over the line before the start, including one of the contenders, Excalibur, which left Abrasive to take first place. Disko Trooper took second place and Software Mistress took third, but neither took advantage of the results, choosing not to compete in the final race.

Still eager, the Zero and Super Zero Class suffered a general recall, and with the wind building and veering, the race committee laid a different start line before sending them away.

When the big boats finally got away, the weather turned the form book on its head, with Peter Harrison's Chernikeeff 2 taking line honours and first place, nearly two minutes ahead of Bear of Britain (Kit Hobday/Tim Louis) and Volvo For Life Team Tonic (Nick Hewson), with the new Ker 55 Aera (Nick Lykiardopulo) another two minutes further back.

The IC45s, Wolf (Glynn Williams) and Rebel (Peter Morton) took the other podium places on corrected time.

The crew work on Aera continued to show its strength when, in the pre-start sequence for the first race, her boom section folded. The crew took down the main and the boat was the first to the windward mark, despite not getting its trysail pulling until just five boat lengths short of the mark.

Downwind the boat was restricted to using a tacked down assymetrical. The increasing wind strength started to take its toll on gear, with 12 boats deciding that they would not complete the first race of the day.

The starting line-up for the last race saw only two-thirds of the Zero and Super Zero boats cross the line, less than half of Class 1, and one-third each of Classes 2 and 3.

The final race was finished in a consistent force six, with top speeds in the region of 33-34 knots, despite which, most of those that started managed to stay the course.

In the Zero and Super Zero Class, Bear of Britain took first place, with rival Chernikeeff 2 taking second, and Aera holding on for third.

In Class 1, Exabyte continued its run of form to take first place and the overall class prize, with Royal Blue Addict second in the race and Assassin third.

Highland Spirit waited until the last race to achieve her first place in Class 2, leading home Capitali$m (Tim Harrington), taking his first podium position, and Flair IV. Despite winning the final race, Excalibur wasn't able to better Abrasive, who held on to win the class by just three points.

Results

Super Zero and Zero - overall: 1 Aera Nick Lykiardopulo, 2 Volvo For Life Team Tonic Nick Hewson, 3 Bear of Britain Kit Hobday/Tim Louis.

IRC1 - overall: 1 Exabyte 2 Shaun Frohlich, 2 Bare Knuckles Robert Gateshill, 3 Assassin Peter Jackson.

IRC 2 - overall: 1 Flair IV Jim MacGregor, 2 Highland Spirit Hamish Oliphant, 3 The Office Nigel Musto.

IRC 3 - overall: 1 Abrasive Paul Hirst & Ashley Taylor, 2 Excalibur Mike & June Tong, 3 Electra Mike Tattersall.