Piet Voon's Ker 51 Tonnerre 4 (NED) scoorde een 1-1-2 op de laatste dag van de RORC IRC nationals en wint hiermee deze high performance klasse met grote marge. De Royal Ocean Racing Club was aangenaam verrast om veteraan Piet Vroon weer in het circuit te zien na een zware rugoperatie. Mike Bartholomew's GP42 Tokoloshe II (GBR) werd tweede in IRC One en Sir Keith Mills' Ker40+ Invictus (GBR) won de laatste race van de dag om zo Bastiaan De Voogd's Sydney 43 GTS Coin Coin (NED) van het podium te houden.
Tonnerre 4 werd gestuurd door niemand minder dan Volvo Ocean Race zeiler Paul Wilcox: "This is one of the better fleets I have sailed in the Solent. The 40-foot fleet is coming back to life; this group of boats and their owners are spending a lot of time and effort in raising the game and the teams are responding by performing well. You can see that in the shorter leg courses, because you have to sail around cleanly and you have to sail well. Over the three days, the Race Committee did a really good job; moving us from the Western Solent to the East shows the experience they have got. We have had three good races every day. That is not easy anymore, these boats are getting more and more draft and it is getting harder and harder to lay good race courses and they have been smart in the way they have mixed up the courses."
IRC One
1. Tonnerre 4 Ker 51 Piet Vroon (NED)
2. Tokoloshe II GP 42 Michael Bartholomew (GBR)
3. Invictus Ker 40+ Sir Keith Mills (GBR)
4. Coin Coin Sydney 43 GTS Bastiaan De Voogd (NED)
Foto © Paul Wyeth/pwpictures.com
