WHILE Saturday belonged to Jason Ker and his exciting new 11.3m designs, Sunday was a day for the Farr 52s with Bear of Britain, featuring a team of all amateur sailors, taking the Sorcery Trophy in Class 0.

Two of the top three finishers in the class were Farr 52s which have taken the south coast racing scene by storm this summer, with second placed Swan 60 Spirit of Jethou, owned by Peter Ogden a computer company millionaire, just two minutes behind the winner on corrected time.

The Farr 52s, scaled up - and more expensive - versions of the increasingly popular Farr 40s, were first launched 18 months ago and four have now been built with three, Bear of Britain, Loco and Chernikeeff 2 and owned by British America's Cup backer Peter Harrison, attending Skandia Life Cowes Week.

According to navigator on Bear of Britain, Southampton student Nick Black, the boats, which cost around £700,000, are quick and great fun for lovers of one design boats.

He said: "With the extra sail area, they go like troopers in these sorts of winds.

"They go really well though if the winds die, as they are expected to do, the Swans with their overlapping jibs could do better than our boats, which have high aspect ratio jibs.

"But we still fancy our chances against them this week.

"We have been training really hard and the whole idea behind Bear of Britain is to show that with some hard work and training, amateurs can do as well as the professionals.

"I think we are proving that because there are five professionals on each of the other boats and we are beating them, but it is early days," said Black, who is studying Ships Science at Southampton University.

Helmsman Mark Campbell-James, one of the biggest young talents in UK sailing, is the skipper of Bear, while Kit Hobday and Tim Louis, who last year campaigned Independent Bear, a Corby 41.5m, are the proud owners.

Loco, owned by Australian David Lowe, was out of the top three yesterday after they shredded their spinnaker, prompting urgent calls back to Australia to have new replacements sent out by the start of the Fastnet race on Friday.

"We had one of those days when we passed the others about four times then stuffed up but we had good boat speed and we are sailing really well," said Lowe.

All 34 classes in Skandia Life Cowes Week enjoyed blue skies, warm sun and decent 15 knot breezes for most the day yesterday and until the final reaching leg from Portsmouth back to the Squadron line, everyone in the two top classes was happy.

In Class 1, Swiss X442 Flying Swiss IV finished first on corrected time with Team Tonic and Solent favourite Desperado, Richard Loftus's Swan, in third.

Title favourite Nokia Communicator, owned by Charles Dunstone, was lifted after their return to Cowes Yacht Haven after the rudder became loose out on the course.

In Class 3, Yarmouth boat Menenes, a Swan 441 owned by Graham Deegan, had a great start with first on Sunday, while Royal Southampton Yacht Club members Peter and Flavia Bateson recorded a third in Class 4 on Starspray looking to improve on their excellent performance in 2000.

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