Rupert Mander sailing a Flying 15, won not only White Group (that is, all Keel and sports boats), but also the whole event Cowes Week for all vessels.

Below is the final report from the Cowes Week website;

Four boats scored an unbroken run of first places over the first six days of the Regatta: Imogen Watkins’ Fareast 28R Mako in the Sportsboat class, Stuart Reed’s Sunbeam Firefly, Rupert Mander and Gareth Edwards’ Flying 15 Men Behaving Badly, and Richard Dilley’s Grand Soleil 46 Belladonna, in Performance Cruiser Division A.

Men Behaving Badly had already won her class with a day to spare, but also won today’s race, just four seconds ahead of Graham Deegan’s Akarana, to seal overall victory in White Group. Mander and Edwards were also crowned overall Cowes Week winner for the second time in three years and the fourth time in total.

What’s the secret behind their success? “You have to keep as fast as you can and stay ahead of the others, while successfully orienteering around the buoys,” Mander says. On a boat with no electronics and only two people on board Edwards says this means, “We both note the course and are talking it through all the way, checking the bearings and spotting the marks as soon as possible.”

“That was difficult today,” adds Mander, “we’ve never been that far west before in a Flying 15 and the marks were hard to spot in the waves. It was the most fun sailing we’ve had all week, planing downwind and hard work going upwind, plus a full-on reach across the Solent with spray flying everywhere.”

Photos Paul Wyeth/pwpictures.com