Sailing - Hamish wins race but Charlie Stagnetto takes the series

After almost a month of no king’s Cup racing following the cancellation of the previous three attempts to race the 4th race of the Jubilee Series (and the 2021 King’s Cup campaign) due to light winds, the season finally resumed in very variable Westerly winds off the runway.
 
Andrew Alcantara in Zoe managed to get the best start at the pin end of line and in doing so, he managed to push John Bassadone in Emendek out causing the latter to have to restart the race at the back of the fleet.
 
However, within a couple of minutes of the start it was Charlie Lavarello and Charlie Stagnetto who appeared to pull away from the peloton and they soon tacked off towards the refinery in search of the expected stronger winds in the North followed by the majority of the fleet except for a brave Alex Dobbs in Zeus and the resurgent John Bassadone in Emendek who hung on in the South hoping for the wind to be there instead.
 
As the beat progressed, it was soon clear that the South was the place to be with Alex Dobbs making use of the stronger wind to pull well ahead of the fleet and lead at the first mark closely followed by a chasing pack including Charlie Lavarello, Charlie Stagnetto, John Bassadone, Hamish Risso and Micko Capurro desperate to hunt him down.
 
The run back to Western Beach was an interesting one with Alex Dobbs, Charlie Lavarello and Micko Capurro sticking to the south whilst Charlie Stagnetto, John Bassadone and Hamish Risso all taking a more northerly route in search of fortune.  Although half way down it seemed that the boats to the North had done well and made more progress on the ones to the south, by the end of the run, the picture was a lot less clear with Alex Dobbs still maintaining his lead and Charlie Stagnetto gaining a place at the expense of Charlie Lavarello whilst Micko overtook Hamish to round in 5th place behind John Bassadone.
 
On the next beat back to the RAF mark, the boats that could sail in clean wind headed towards the north whilst Hamish Risso and Charlie Lavarello who we in poor positions compared to the boats directly ahead of them, decided to tack off early towards the south and clear their wind. As they progressed up the North Mole, a big wind shift convinced Charlie Lavarello to tack back to the north whilst Hamish behind him wanted to do the same thing but was to do so without being in Charlie Lavarello’s dirty wind and so he decided to hang on in the south. 
 
Although Charlie Lavarello’s tack paid immediate dividends with him managing to close in on leaders Alex Dobbs and Charlie Stagnetto, there were changes afoot and soon it was Hamish who found himself in prime position as the most southerly boat in the fleet.  As the beat continued, Hamish continued to make progress, so much so that he actually managed to reach the RAF for the second time with a slight lead over Charlie Stagnetto in second place and Alex Dobbs in third.
 
On the run down, an error with the spinnaker aboard Fairdawn plus some good spinnaker work from Paul Borda aboard Fencer, meant that Hamish initially pulled away from Charlie Stagnetto although once they sorted the issue out, it was clear that Charlie was travelling faster than Hamish and closing the gap quickly. This lead to Hamish having to take some defensive actions to prevent Charlie Stagnetto taking his wind and this worked to a certain extent with Hamish managing to round the final mark with a shorter lead over Charlie Stagnetto than he had had at the start of the run. Behind them, Alex Dobbs was sailing a good run to maintain his 3rd position ahead of the heavyweight trio of John Bassadone, Micko Capurro and Charlie Lavarello.
 
The first half of the final beat was a tense affair with Charlie Stagnetto tacking several times to try and make in roads into Hamish’s lead and Hamish covering him at every opportunity to ensure that no advantage was gained. However, these tacks slowed both boats down and it was soon clear that the rest of the fleet was catching them quickly and so they soon had to abandon the tacking duel and just sail as fast as they could to the finish.
 
As they closed in on the finish, Charlie Stagnetto was worried enough about the approaching John Bassadone to tack on him whilst Hamish kept a close eye on both of them at all times.  In the end neither boat needed to worry too much with Hamish taking the win 20 seconds ahead of Charlie Stagnetto followed by Alex Dobbs in 3rd a further 15 seconds behind but only 1 second ahead of John Bassadone in fourth.  In the duels further down the field, Charlie Lavarello managed to hold off Micko Capurro to take 5th and Andrew Alcantara managed to hold off David Collins to claim 7th.

Jubilee 4 Final Results

1 Hamish Risso in Fencer (Crew Paul Borda and Miro Kunes)
2 Charlie Stagnetto in Fairdawn
3 Alex Dobbs in Zeus
4 John Bassadone in Emendek
5 Charlie Lavarello in Nemesis
6 Micko Capurro in Andromeda
7 Andrew Alcantara in Zoe
8 David Collins in Niña
 
Jubilee Series Final Positions (and current King’s Cup standings)
 
1. Charlie Stagnetto in Fairdawn  - 4 points (2 x 1st and 1 x 2nd)
2. Hamish Risso in Fencer – 5 points (1 x 1st and 2 x 2nd)
 
Despite his second place in the final race, the first series of the 2021 King’s Cup - the Jubilee series  - was won by Charlie Stagnetto with 4 points, just one ahead of Hamish with 5.  Behind them the likes of john Bassadone, Charlie Lavarello and Micko Capurro are just a few points behind and in a strong position to mount a King’s Cup challenge in the coming weeks and months.
 
The King’s Cup series will continue with the first of the Brinton series coming up ‪next Thursday‬ – a race which undoubtedly be as hard fought as the rest of the races have been this season.
 
Tuesday races (Non King’s Cup)
 
In the Tuesday racing (non-King’s Cup) the first series of the season – the RAFSA Cup – was won by Raymond Payas in Odyssey with Andrew Alcantara in Zoe in second place.
 
In the second Tuesday series – the Frank Imossi Cup – three out of the four races have been raced with Charlie Stagnetto (2 x 1st and one non-starter) and Andrew Alcantara (1 x 1st and 2 x 2nd) both battling it out for the cup.
 
This series will be decided ‪next Tuesday‬ with some expected strong Westerly winds adding to the excitement.