The overall winner of RORC Myth of Malham Race, after IRC time correction, was Rob Craigie’s Sun Fast 3600 Bellino, racing Two-Handed with RORC Commodore Deb Fish.
Earlier Eric de Turckheim’s NMD 54 Teasing Machine which blasted round the 235 mile course took line honours by a huge margin.
Teasing Machine’s elapsed time of 25.5 hours represents an impressive average speed made good of just over 9 knots. On the other hand, some of the smaller entries, a few of which didn’t finish until almost 24 hours after the big French boat, had a different experience, including a long shut down on their final night at sea.
At the half way point Tim Goodhew and Kelvin Matthews’ Sun Fast 3200 Cora held the overall lead after time correction, according to Bellino’s Rob Craigie, and it was only in the later stages of the race that the smaller boat slipped back.
Goodhew commented, “We could see it slipping away quite convincingly in the last 15-20 miles of the race, when the real challenge for us was to keep the boat going and try to keep up with the breeze before it shut down.”
Nevertheless, Cora won IRC Class 3 and took second overall as well as second in the double handed fleet.
Craigie and Fish on Bellino spent the second half of the race looking over their shoulders at Sam White and Sam North on the JPK 10.80 Mzungu!, winners of both IRC 2 and double handed last year. At the finish Bellino was just six minutes ahead of Mzungu! and took overall victory 18 minutes ahead of Cora after IRC time correction.
The battle for the final podium place in the overall standings could not have been closer – with three boats finishing inside 45 seconds after IRC time correction.
Per Roman’s Swedish JPK 11.80 Garm took third overall, just 8 seconds ahead of Insert Coin, and Mzungu! fifth. The latter two boats took second and third places respectively in IRC2.
Derek Shakespeare’s J/122 Bulldog finished approximately half an hour later than Garm after IRC time correction, to take second place in IRC1, with Michael O’Donnell’s J/121 Darkwood third in that class.
RORC’s next event is the North Sea Race from Harwich to Scheveningen on May 10. Organised in the UK in association with the Royal Harwich Yacht Club and EAORA and in The Netherlands with the Yacht Club Scheveningen and the North Sea Regatta.
