Jubilee 1 was raced last Thursday

Last Thursday saw an exciting 1st race of the Jubilee series sailed in a variable, but essentially strong, Easterly wind.

The race commenced with John Bassadone in Emendek finding himself in trouble for the second start in a row, resulting in him having to take a penalty due to some aggressive tactics from Micko Capurro in Andromeda, and whilst most of the fleet continued in a northerly direction, Hamish Risso in Fencer took full advantage of this distraction to be the first boat to tack off to the south.

After a short while, the fleet in the north also followed Hamish in tacking to the south and it was the leading boats in this northerly group – including Micko, Charlie Stagnetto and Charlie Lavarello – that established themselves at the head of the fleet just in front of a chasing Nick Cruz and Hamish Risso.

As they reached the first mark, it was Micko Capurro who managed to make the most of his good start to round the mark in first place with Charlie Lavarello second, Charlie Stagnetto third, Nick Cruz in fourth and Hamish fifth.

On the run down to the RAF mark, some pressure from Alex Dobbs in Zeus forced Hamish further south and this in turn also forced Nick Cruz to sail slightly higher than he would like. However, the wind appeared to be slightly stronger in the south and with this, in addition to some excellent spinnaker work by Joey Imossi, Nick not only manged to make inroads on the leading boats but also overtake Charlie Lavarello and stay ahead of Hamish to round the RAF mark in third place, with Hamish fourth and Charlie Lavarello losing three places to round in fifth. In front of them, Micko managed to make the most of his lead to round the mark in first place albeit with a reduced and very slender lead over Charlie Stagnetto.

As the boats started the beat to Western beach for a second time, both Charlie Lavarello and Nick Cruz had to tack to clear their wind, and this caused the top 5 boats to compress even further and set up an exciting battle to the buoy. However, the leading two boats – Micko and Charlie Stagnetto – were never really challenged and once again they rounded the mark in first and second place respectively, with Charlie Lavarello overtaking Nick and Hamish to round in third, and Hamish who had approached the mark with more momentum than Nick, taking advantage to push Nick down to fifth.

The run that followed was a very interesting one, with Charlie Stagnetto and Micko having a big battle (including several gybes) for first place. During this battle, thanks to some good work by his crew on Fairdawn, Charlie Stagnetto was able to push ahead of Micko and round the mark in first place with a very small lead over Micko and the other chasing boats.

Behind them Nick once again took advantage of Joey Imossi’s spinnaker work to overtake Charlie Lavarello and put himself in third place whilst Hamish Risso, who crisscrossed the course several times in a futile attempt to find more wind, rounded the RAF in fifth with a resurgent Ray Payas and Alex Dobbs nipping at his heels in sixth and seventh places respectively.

Due to the close proximity of all 5 leading boats on the last beat, the scene was once again set for an exciting finale to the race with the boats unsure whether to stick to the more variable, but possibly beneficial south, or head towards the more consistent northerly side of the course. In fact, there were several position changes amongst these five boats during the first part of this beat and as they approached the north mole for the last time, and with less than half a beat left, all five of them – Micko, Charlie Stagnetto, Charlie Lavarello, Nick and Hamish – were in with a chance of winning the race, since all were close enough to have to take sterns when on port and having rivals take their sterns when on starboard.

As these boats got closer to the airfield, Micko and Charlie Stagnetto headed for the north with Hamish, Nick and Charlie Lavarello staying in the south. In the north, Micko pulled out all the stops to prevent the faster Charlie Stagnetto from passing him, tacking on him several times in an ultimately futile attempt to try and slow him down, whilst in the south Hamish took full advantage of some generous southerly puffs to pull ahead of Nick Cruz and Charlie Lavarello.

As the boats got closer to the finish, it was soon clear that Hamish had not only managed to pull ahead of Nick and Charlie Lavarello, but had also taken advantage of the stronger winds in the south to overtake the battling duo of Micko and Charlie Stagnetto in the north, and with an final extra tack to the south to defend his position from a flying Nick Cruz, Hamish was able to claim an unexpected, but very welcome, victory.

Behind him Nick Cruz, aided by the southerly puffs that had also helped Hamish, manged to cross the line in a season’s best second place followed by Charlie Stagnetto in third and Charlie Lavarello in fourth.

Further back Micko Capurro, the long time leader of the race, had to settle for a very undeserved fifth place whilst at the same time fending off Ray Payas who came sixth.

Brinton 1 (selected results only)

1. Hamish Risso in Fencer (Crew Paul Borda and Miro Kunes)
2. Nick Cruz in Eos
3. Charlie Stagnetto in Fairdawn
4. Charlie Lavarello in Nemesis
5. Micko Capurro in Andromeda
6. Ray Payas in Odyssey
7. Alex Dobbs in Zeus

Weather permitting, the second race of the Brinton series will be held this Thursday.

In the Tuesday (non-Kings Cup) races, a dominant Charlie Stagnetto won the last race of the Frank Imossi series ahead of Andrew Alcantara in second and Ray Payas in 3rd. As a result Charlie Stagnetto won the Frank Imossi series and Andrew Alcantara was the runner up