2010 closed on a high note for Grand Soleil owners; Peter Rutter’s Grand Soleil 43 OT Quokka 8 won the 2010 Bugle Hamble Big Boat Series, leaving ‘race boats’ drifting in her wake, including a TP52 a Ker 46 and a DK46. Another GS43 OT, Jua Kali, owned and raced by Mervyn Hughes, Dominic Hurndall and James Agace won Class Zero of the Garmin Hamble Winter Series. The twelve boats beaten by Jua Kali included the Arcona 430 and the Beneteau First 44.7 which only managed scrape in to finish in fourth and sixth place respectively. And so the stage was set for an excellent racing season for Grand Soleil owners in the UK.
The Warsash Spring Series Big Boat Championship was the fist outing of 2011 for Quokka 8, a series which is raced over two weekends. Twelve races were scheduled but a lack of breeze followed by too much pressure meant that only six races were sailed. According to the Race Management Team by far the tightest competition of the series was in Big Boat 2 Class which is where Quokka 8 was racing. The race recorders had their work cut out because the finish line was frequently crowded with just a few seconds separating the first four or five finishers. Ultimately, Quokka 8 finished second in her class, beating, amongst others, two First 40s and an Elan 410.
One of the attributes of the Round the Island Race is that entries are encouraged from all sailors whatever their level of experience and irrespective of whether one is a seasoned racer or a first-timer and the Island Sailing Club Rating System (ISCRS) is designed specifically for boats, skippers and crews who don’t often or normally take part in competitive regattas. This is clearly part of the reason for the huge numbers of teams who travel to the Solent to take part. The Round the Island Race was an extremely exciting one in 2011 with big breeze and some monster waves around the back of the island. The ‘fresh to frightening’ conditions took their toll on the fleet and even some of the professional grand-prix race boats found themselves the worse for wear but two Grand Soleil crews did especially well. Minka Armitage’s Grand Soleil 343 called Gazelle won Class ISCRS 7 and finished second overall under the ISC Rating System. Andy Hope’s Grand Soleil 43 Principessa finished second in Class ISCRS 4 and third overall. Two fabulous results which are clearly a credit to these skippers and their crew.
The IRC National Championship is one of the most important regattas of the season for those skippers and crew who race regularly and it pulls in entries from the top performing race-boats from all around the UK and Ireland. As one would expect for a National Championship the standard of competition at this event is second to none. The 2011 event was a breezy one which took place over three days early in July. From the very first race, Peter Rutter and crew on Quokka 8 looked set to star and she scored three wins in as many races in Class IRC 2.‘The racing is incredible, it is a matter of feet on the start line that defines the race’, described the ex-RORC Commodore Peter Rutter. According to Rutter there was added fire in the belly of his crew at the IRC Nationals this year, as they had frequently come second at this event, but they have never won it.
As the regatta unfolded, it was clear that Rutter had been bang on the nail with his perception of the aspirations of his crew: and they went on to score eight bullets in eight races, comfortably winning 2011 IRC National Championship title as well as victory within IRC 2.‘I am incredibly proud – my crew have really worked their hearts off,’ said Rutter. ‘I have never been able to win this regatta before and I said to them ‘we have to nail it this time’ and they have worked their cotton socks off. So I am very, very pleased and it is nice to have got this one finally put away. The boat is going well, the sails are good and the crew work has been stunning.’
At Cowes Week in 2011, Willem Wester, a fabulous racing sailor who had owned a number of Grand Soleils of various shapes and sizes was racing his brand new Grand Soleil 46. Willem’s boats are always called Antilope and this new tricked-up racing version of the Botin and Carkeek design is especially beautiful and extremely slippery on the race-track. According to the organisers, the racing at Cowes Week 2011 took place in an average wind-speed of 20 knots, so an especially fruity regatta! The new Antilope was racing in IRC 1, an extremely competitive twenty-four boat fleet. At the end of the seven race series, she finished third in class, just three points off second and six from the top slot.
As soon as Cowes Week finishes, the Fastnet Race starts, and a number of UK based Grand Soleils including Chaz Ivill’s Grand Soleil 54 called John B and Quokka 8 had been using the RORC Offshore series to qualify and practice for the Fastnet Race. The crews of these two Grand Soleils were clearly of the opinion that if you have to do the qualifying races, you might as well try to win a few too. Chaz Ivill and his crew on John B won IRC 1 in both the Cervantes Trophy Race and the prestigious Morgan Cup and Quokka 8 (being raced for the offshore series by a team from a sailing school called Sailing Logic) won IRC 2 in the prestigious De Guingand Bowl.
The Fastnet Race is well regarded as an epic offshore adventure and it attracts some of the best professional racing sailors in the world as well as the many more competent non-professionals who are determined to test themselves, their crews and their boats in this challenging 600 mile race around a rock. This year the race threw a variety of conditions at the teams taking part, there was big breeze for many out in the Irish Sea followed by desperately stressful shut-downs in the pressure on the way back to the finish in Plymouth.
Codiam, the Grand Soleil 43 OT of Monsieurs Loday and Nicoleau was seventh overall under IRC (the best performing Grand Soleil in the Fastnet Race in 2011) and they won Class IRC 1. This is a formidable racing team and this also happens to be their second consecutive win in IRC Class 1 on the Fastnet: they also took the bullet here in 2009. Another GS43 OT, Quokka 8, used the Fastnet Race to prove that these beautiful Italian yachts are far more than one-trick ponies. Can they win inshore? Yes they can. How do they do offshore? Very well indeed: Quokka 8 was tenth overall in the Fastnet this year, a result which is all the more commendable because she was being sailed under charter by Philip Falle and his team from Sailing Logic. What a cracking job they did!
Dartmouth Regatta takes place at the end of August and it is always a fabulous, fun event. There are air displays and rowing races and carnival queens and fireworks but these frivolities in no way detract from the fact that this is a superb racing regatta, well attended by racing skippers and their crews and always hotly fought. For Quokka 8’s regular crew Dartmouth delivered yet another victory with a win in IRC Class 1. What a way to finish the summer season.
2012 looks set to be a busy year for Grand Soleil. The new Grand Soleil 39 will have been launched at the end of 2011 and this stunning performance cruiser-racer will be in high demand with both racing and cruising owners alike. The Commodore’s Cup takes place in July and there is usually a good handful of international teams who include Grand Soleils on their fleet. There will be plenty to do on the race courses of the UK next year and Key Yachting have some fun social sailing events planned too.
