Are you up for the Cup?
The Fairplay Cup was conceived in discussions at Posidonia in 1994 as a way of getting representatives of the different sectors of the shipping industry together in a friendly but mildly competitive environment
It is held in mid-June each year in the Solent, on the UK’s south coast, using a fleet of identical chartered yachts. Most crews meet for dinner the evening before, followed the next day by a breakfast, a pre-race briefing and a shakedown sail.
A first race is followed by a running lunch and the day continues with a second race and refreshments ashore. An informal evening reception is followed by the prize presentations and dinner in a historic venue.
The number of participants is limited, but if you would like details of how to enter a team of your staff or guests, fill in the online form or contact Debbie Winchester at Fairplay on +44 (0)1737 379128 or
email deborah.winchester@lrfairplay.com
No sailing experience is needed – just a sense of humour.
Not doing things by halves
Some speak of a cup half full and others of a cup half empty. But this year’s Fairplay Cup was not about half measures. In fact, it was in three parts, after the trophy was dropped outside Fairplay Towers the day before.
So much for stout boxes and polystyrene chips. Sticky tape and glue can only do so much; the Fairplay Cup would never again brim with champagne.
So, after 15 successful outings, next year’s cup will be different. That much is clear. But the Cup – with a capital C – will be the same mix of good sailing in good company that it has always been. That is not to say that the event has not evolved and improved – it has got bigger, it has got better and it has befriended a wide circle of from across the globe. ‘Befriended’ is the word used in Lloyd’s Register Rail’s feedback this year. "As a group of railwaymen
befriended by the marine industry, it’s always a pleasure to take part in the Fairplay Cup", they wrote. They are not the only non-marine participants: LR-Fairplay’s solicitors Gordons and fellow law firm Crimson Tide returned for a
second trip round the buoys.
For some this year, the Cup was a new pleasure. Bureau Veritas took part for the first time, and took part in force – using four boats. They were matched by four boats booked by Lloyd’s Register, prompting some concern by Fairplay’s managing editor. With two class societies doing the same thing in the same way in the same place and at the same time, he checked the doors at the evening dinner in case the EU Competition Commission had sealed them in a new investigation into class societies. Fairplay’s publisher, Lloyd’s Register- Fairplay, might have been added to that list but, on the day of the race, LR’s 49.9% holding had been sold to the American data specialist IHS, which already held the other 50.1% and had taken a boat for the first time in the Fairplay Cup. An LR-F subsidiary, LNGLive, was also taking part for the first time, as too was Sea Tec – an offshoot of V.Ships, previously a successful Fairplay Cup competitor. Shipmanagers Graig Group and shiprepairers Testbank were also newcomers this year and brought with them Americas Cup tactician Andy Green as skipper. How will he fare against Fairplay Cup regulars?
Others were old friends, for whom the Fairplay Cup is a fixture in their corporate calendar. Michael Else & Co is an established regular, along with Castrol and ABB. London Offshore Consultants (LOC), Holman Fennick Willan (HFW), Gray Page and the Baltic Exchange Sailing Association are more recent converts and bring their evangelising zeal to the proceedings.
Early start
Faced with an early start on race day, most crews assemble the night before, bringing a welcome boost for Portsmouth’s hotel and restaurant managers. Gray Page had the right idea, with conversation turning only briefly to their
prospects "while enjoying a few nicely chilled bottles of Chablis, a good supper and a few more nicely chilled bottles of Chablis". They "spilled out of the eatery at close to the witching hour", topped up their levels at the hotel bar and fell into bed "only four hours before race day dawned." They don’t do things by halves. Others had arrived even earlier – the Michael Else crew, for example. They came a respectable third in last year’s race and were determined to improve on that. The lesson from that experience was that "we needed more than two people who knew what to do with a spinnaker" so they recruited an experienced bow man – who happens to be a partner at Holman Fenwick Willan; will there be a conflict of interest? – and the same skipper as last year, James Gair of Shoreberths.
Not only that, but they practiced beforehand. "We knew we still had too many inexperienced hands on board so we decided to go out the afternoon before to allow our skipper to give us a bit of a beasting and to practice spinnaker drills." But the weather during that week was somewhat variable and, as luck would have it, "the wind was gusting to 30kts so most of the afternoon was
spent straining on winches. Needless to say, the spinnaker stayed in its bag."
Lighten up
But they don’t do things by halves either. So, when race day dawned without a breath of wind, "the skipper ordered us into our skimpiest lightweight clothes and issued instructions on all legal ways to lighten the boat. We were pretty impressed to be able to strip out the engine without anybody noticing."
One of the Lloyd’s Register teams – Weathering the Storm – found that their boat had already been lightened. Checking it over before setting off, they found they were short of a spinnaker and a winch handle, "both quite useful items of kit if you stand an earthly chance of getting round the cans anywhere near the rest of the fleet." Replacements were borrowed from a boat not in use that day but the crew "later discovered that our colleagues on LR’s Knot over the Limit had half-inched them from us only an hour earlier." BV Marine’s Netherlands & UK crew set off with too much on board. Okay, it was only a piece of paper, but the next-of-kin form is an important document and having to return to the pontoon to hand it in set them back a few boats. Even though the race had not started, drinks were handed round to aid recovery from this setback.
For those who had not practised beforehand, the short trip from the Sunsail moorings at Port Solent, through Portsmouth Harbour and into the Solent provides the only opportunity for practice and BV’s Netherlands & UK boat had banked on making the most of it. Out in open water they put in a few tacks, set the spinnaker once and gybed it once. After this intensive regime, they declared themselves to be "a well trained and experienced team".
Lloyd’s Register Rail had banked on this training opportunity. While not pretending to be a slick racing crew, their notes describe their crew as "a collection of interested and willing invitees under the guidance and stressed eye of an LR skipper and competent mate." But two guests dropped out, leaving them short handed and, with their allocated boat inside two others, they were fortunate to get moving as quickly as they did. One guest had made the mistake, the evening before, of mentioning that he had previously handled spinnakers during his naval training many years before. That got him the job of lead bowman.
Hope and expectation
As the fleet had set off, morale was high, if only because of the quantities of food and drink loaded on board. Castrol described their trip to the racing area as leisurely, enjoying the light airs and blue skies. After some fine tuning to their teamwork and sailing skills, they felt positive, although "this confidence may have more to do with optimism than our abilities", they reflected later. So what should they expect from the day? The race officer had spelt out the forecast in his morning briefing: westerly wind, force 3-4, increasing to 5-6 later in the day. The sea will be slight-to-moderate and there will be showers for a while. Visibility will be good. The conditions could hardly be better: easy winds for the morning race, increasing for a
more testing time in the afternoon, yet not so
much wind that spinnakers cannot be flown or
sails shortened.
But what else should we expect? With a few
multi-boat teams in this year’s event, will there be
Formula-One style team orders that others should
know about? In conversation over breakfast, one
of the many BV crews spelt out their strategy: it
will be like the Tour de France, he said. One BV
boat will take the lead while the others block the
rest of the fleet, he predicted.
On the other hand, what inter-boat rivalries
are likely to emerge? One LOC crewmember
confided to Fairplay’s sailing correspondent
beforehand that there were "certain people that
we have to beat". He would not say who they
were, but it was not difficult to guess and their
post-race report confirmed it as HFW. Their report
described the relationship as ‘friendly rivalry’,
but they were not the only ones out to beat last
year’s winners. Michael Else described HFW as
arch rivals; "our bow man gave a rousing speech
about the underdog rising to the challenge and
pointed out that he didn’t mind where we came
providing HFW was behind us."
HFW confirmed that the feeling was mutual.
"We’ve got a lot of history with LOC", said one
HFW man at the end of the day. Over various
sailing events, "they’ve beaten us, we’ve
beaten them."
Gray Page also had LOC in its sights. "What I
was really pleased about was that we beat LOC",
said one Gray Page crewmember afterwards. And,
with two members of the Baltic Exchange Sailing
Association on its boat, there was inevitably rivalry
with that organisation’s official entry as well.
Starting line-up
So with all this baggage on board, the boats
finally shape up for the start of the first race. Some
were better prepared than others and Lloyd’s
Register Rail found that their practicing had taken
them far from the start line when the ten-minute
warning sounded called and the motor was
called into action. It was, they claim, turned off
again before the five-minute call. At least they
avoided the confusion over the course (see ‘Start
as you mean to go on’) which, even if plotted
correctly, was a complex one with crossing points
offering potential conflicts and confusion.
With 22 boats contesting a start line, there is
bound to be a certain amount of jostling and
there is a prize for the first boat legally across
the line, as judged from the press boat at the
outer mark. From there, it looked an unusually
clean start, with all the boats short of the line but
stories from within the pack were reassuringly
full of abuse and argument. On Castrol’s boat, for
example, "our skipper expertly negotiated the
mêlée to have us looking good for a quick start,
though the skipper of the IHS boat seemed to
differ in opinion and expressed his views in terms
that cannot be printed."
Whatever he said, it was clearly fruity. From
the IHS boat’s viewpoint, its skipper’s reaction
to "being barged by Castrol when we had right
of way, effectively scuppering our chance for
success" involved "words that a lady could not
repeat". But he was a skipper who inspired
confidence from the start, its report said, being
able to sail a boat and roll a cigarette at the same
time. "He showed his dexterity in this way several
times throughout the races."
Some skippers had other distractions. The
Sunsail skipper on board BV’s Netherlands &
UK boat was also multitasking, but in her case,
she was "not only looking for the best starting
position but also for her boyfriend who was
skippering another boat."
The tack to the first mark saw the fleet split
into two, with most boats electing to tack
inshore for the shallower water and slower tide.
The downside appeared to be the risk that what
little wind there was would be sheltered by the
headland, which the outer group clearly felt
more significant.
First at the first
With the fleet so spread, it is only at the first mark
that any clear leader emerges. But even now the
back marker has become clear: Gordons Solicitors
and Crimson Tide on their boat Pink Gin. As the
helmsman on the press boat dryly remarked, they
are used to being paid by the hour.
First at the mark was LOC, showing that its team name of VeLOCity2 was well chosen, well ahead
of Michael Else’s Sextant in second place. It was
also justification for the shallow route, which LOC
took after a poor start. "We plugged away inshore
and didn’t panic (much) as the indicated depth
beneath the keel showed zero", they later recalled.
Last year’s winners, HFW, were counted round in
eighth place and surely out of contention.
For ABB, the first leg confirmed that their team name – A Brighter Bunch – was not as
appropriate as it had first seemed. "We started the
first race badly and then it got worse", their log
mourns. "When we arrived at the first mark we
were so far behind it was 50/50 whether to take
it easy and go for the ‘most improved boat in the
second race’ or see whether we could make up a
few places." They decided on the latter and, over
the rest of the race, "flew past the stragglers to
finish a commendable 14th".
As the day wears on, the press boat looks for examples of safe sailing that can be recognised
by the Safety at Sea international trophy at the
awards dinner and it was at this mark that it was
won by Gray Page, who were seen to give way
even though they were the stand-on boat. It
seems that its crew name, Risky Business, was
perhaps a misnomer.
As they told the story later, "our morning’s training had not covered what to do when faced
with a skipper who had misjudged her starboard
tack arrival at the windward mark and found
herself 20ft to leeward of our parallel approach.
Her solution was to throw in a tack, which meant
we were facing a T-bone situation unless her
boat had the turning circle of a London taxi." In
response, "our mouths opened as one and eight
voices screamed with a unison that a Welsh male
voice choir would be proud of." Their helmsman
barely recalls giving way, remembering just "a
slight kink in our wake to let on how close the
Sunsail repair teams came to having two more
hulls join the ranks of the wounded." Still, "that
was the silverware seen to."
Among the leaders at this stage are LR’s Weathering the Storm and Testbank, with BV’s
Netherlands & UK team leading the French
assault, just head of Castrol and the Baltic
Exchange Sailing Association.
Spinnaker skills
It is often the spinnaker work that wins or loses
races, and the next leg showed how prepared,
or otherwise, each boat was. Some had their
sails and spars set and ready; others seemed to
start planning their hoist only once they were
past the buoy.
It also provided the first sight of Sunsail’s new
spinnaker design, with a smiley logo adorning a
variety of coloured kites. But not all the spinnakers
were Sunsail-supplied: Fairplay started a trend
two years ago with a personalised spinnaker
and two other teams followed suit last year.
This year, newcomer Sea Tec hoisted its own sail
and, bizarrely, a Smit logo was seen billowing
downwind from one of last year’s new spinnakers.
This turned out to be on the HFW boat; "they are
good friends of ours", it was explained later, and
since they were unable to come this year were
pleased to have the advertising opportunity.
It was a leg that made an important difference
to the placings: LOC was still in first place but
Michael Else was closing the gap and HFW, with
their borrowed sail, had climbed to third. From
this mark, the photographers had a good view
back down the fleet and could make out the
distinctive red Fairplay spinnaker somewhere on
the horizon. Oddly, its logo had been erased. As
it came nearer it became apparent that – despite
colour coded corners – it had been hoisted back
to front. It went up the same way in the second
race and, since Fairplay does not make mistakes,
it was clearly pre-planned. Presumably, the crew
were confident they would be in the lead and
arranged it to give those following the full benefit
of this expensive geegaw.
By the end of the next leg, the positions were
unchanged, although Michael Else continued
to close on LOC, but it was here that one of
the race officer’s cunning plans came into
effect: the course for the next mark took boats
straight back through the oncoming fleet. For
Lloyd’s Register’s Weathering the Storm team,
approaching this buoy was fraught with alarm.
The buoy carries the name ‘Bob Kemp’ and is well known to Fairplay Cup regulars. The
complex course took boats past it twice and the
first time, despite three assurances that he had
seen it and noted its position, the helmsman
steered straight at it. It was a close shave, but
their deposit remained intact. The second time,
the buoy provided the hairpin bend and "we
seemed to be approaching everyone from the
opposite direction", their reporter noted. "Who
the hell was Bob Kemp, anyway?"
Michael Else was one of those boats that the
Weathers encountered, while other boats went
wide to avoid trouble. It was a move that paid off
and brought it to the next mark in the lead, with
LOC in second place.
Dash for the line
But it is here that LOC’s mistake in not spotting
the course change costs it dearly, losing it vital
places as Michael Else hoists its spinnaker for the run to the line. Or rather, tries to hoist its
spinnaker: it needs more than just a halyard
if it is to work. "Some slick helmsmanship and
instinctive reactions brought the flailing beast
back into the boat long enough for the bow man
to redeem himself. Spinnaker set, still in the lead,
game on and first across the line." That left HFW
in second place and LOC – in the absence of a
protest – third and Testbank in fourth.
BV Netherlands & UK was pleased with its
fifth place, but clearly felt it should have done
better. Right back at the first mark, it was
approaching along with a number of other
boats over which it believes it had right of way.
"But I think the other boats had made their own
regulations which forced our skipper to tack."
After that, "we managed to climb again to fifth
position at the finish."
Those further down the fleet had had an
equally exciting time, but not always with a
pleasing outcome. Lloyd’s Register Rail, for
example, were about mid-fleet as they came to
the end of the spinnaker run and put in a swift
tack to overtake the boat in front, only to discover
what is meant by a riding turn on a winch.
They were not the only crew to suffer from
riding turns: Lloyd’s Register’s Weathering the
Storm crew caught one but took drastic action
with a sharp knife, somehow managing to
cut only four inches off the jib sheet. "We then proceeded to even up both sides as we managed to repeat the incident as we crossed the line." With the first race over, the various crews retreated for lunch (see ‘Calculating pie’) while the wind strengthened. The first race, reflected LOC later, "was our glory and our nemesis". Would the second race bring them better fortune?
The Next Challenge
It is easy to underestimate the importance of the second race at the Fairplay Cup.
After a hard-fought contest in the morning and a convivial lunch, it is tempting to
take the afternoon less seriously. But experienced racers know better
For once, a British weather forecast was
accurate. The wind had increased as predicted,
presenting a challenging afternoon race. And
the race officer set another imaginative course,
consisting of two laps round a triangular course
followed by two finishing legs.
He had also defined a new start line, this time
close inshore with limited manoeuvring room, as
if designed to create the confusion that ensued at
the start line with two boats – Gray Page and IHS
– called as over the line at the start. From where
the photographer’s were positioned, at least
one other boat also seemed to believe that ‘the
sooner you start, the sooner you’ll finish’.
Gray Page blamed its misfortune on "some
chancer" who had forced them over the line "a
millionth of a gnat’s whisker ahead of the hooter."
They were lucky to have room to put in a quick
tack back across the line that lost it some places
but was not terminal. For IHS, however, the
false start "effectively put paid to a glorious and
anticipated victory", its reporter felt.
Castrol was among the boats caught up in
what they described as "a maritime version of
dodgems as we jostled for the perfect start".
Unfortunately, "as we made our run for the line,
the space we were aiming for filled with the
stern of another equally determined boat and
after some hasty manoeuvring that saw us lose
momentum, we got across the start line in the
second half of the field."
For Michael Else, with everything to play for,
a good start was essential and "the skipper had
us beautifully set for the perfect start but we
managed to snooker him with a riding turn on
the jib winch just when he needed full power
with 15 seconds to the off." Despite this, they
reckon they got away fourth. How costly would
that error prove?
Lloyd’s Register Rail also suffered a costly
error as it once again caught a riding turn on
its starboard winch. Efforts to free it ate up
valuable time – so much that, when the race
was over, they were timed out for being more
than 30 minutes after the winning crew. "We
generously let everyone go past" was how they
put it in the bar later.
LOC also had a disappointing first leg. "The
planning was good but we lost position on the
first beat and were pushed out into the tide. The
rest is history."
Shallow thinking
BV Netherlands & UK – like LOC, one of the front
runners in the first race – also blamed the first leg
of the second race for a downturn in its fortunes.
Their Sunsail skipper opted to head into deeper
water while the rest of the fleet stayed inshore.
"The latter turned out to be the correct choice,
although the skipper said her route turned out
very well for her in a race a week earlier." A week is
a long time in tide and weather.
As for the first race, once the fleet became
split, the press boat headed for the first mark,
confidently identified in the distance by the
motor boat’s hired helmsman. It had occurred to
the paparazzi during the first race that going to
the first mark gave an unfair guide to its location
and the same thought cropped up again.
Meanwhile, looking for details to note for this
report, Fairplay’s man on the gin palace jotted
down that the first leg was an unusual saw-tooth
beat. In short, the press boat was heading to the
wrong buoy so any advantage given in the first
race had been counteracted.
The error had not gone unnoticed. "You’ve
got something to answer for", said one skipper
afterwards. "We were checking everything." And
their hapless navigator was getting some
aggravation as he insisted he was right.
"But the photographers are going
over there."
HFW was first round the
mark, followed by Testbank,
Michael Else and two Lloyd’s
Register boats. And then the spinnakers came out and, for Fairplay, it was
déjà vu all over again as their sail was again back
to front.
For ABB, "disaster struck when the spinnaker
wrapped itself so tightly around the jib that we
were doing figure-of-eights to try to release it
and dodging all the other crews as they sailed
past." And Lloyd’s Register’s One Word, One
Purpose, One Team crew experimented with
their spinnaker as a sea anchor, letting it trail in
the water behind them at the end of the first
spinnaker run.
Despite the extra wind, the second race
was taking more time than planned and it was
shortened to just the two laps, giving a spinnaker
run to the finish. With both HFW and Michael
Else in leading positions, these were the boats
to watch and, as HFW rounded the windward
mark on the second lap, their borrowed
spinnaker zipped up the mast. "You can’t fault
that", remarked the motor boat helmsman, and
he was right. Even Michael Else acknowledged
as much in their report. "They executed the kind
of spinnaker hoist we could only dream of and
streaked off down wind. We had our spinnaker
set in about the time it takes to pour eight pints
of Guinness."
After that, HFW could not be caught, giving
them a first place to go with their second. And
Michael Else hangs on to second place, to go
with its first and creating a tie on points. But
racing rules say that when that situation occurs
in a race series, it is the final race that defines
the overall winner, making HFW this year’s
Cup winners. In third place for the second
race came Lloyd’s Register’s Knot over the
Limit, while Testbank’s Saint Geordies came in
fourth – matching their position in the first race
and giving them third place overall.
Further down the fleet, Gray Page had been
slowly recovering from their restart and during
the final spinnaker leg they realised it was LOC
a couple of boat lengths ahead. Making one
last gamble, they rigged the genoa as well
as the spinnaker and caught up,
making an astonishing 9kts. "We
willed Risky Business forward
with every fibre of our being"
and finished sixth, a boat’s
length ahead of LOC.
And who won the Tour de France? BV Marine Netherlands & UK, with
a 5th and an 8th place beat their colleagues in
both races and gained 7th place overall – one
better than the best Lloyd’s Register boat, Knot
over the Limit.
At the evening dinner in Portsmouth’s historic
dockyard, HFW were magnanimous in victory,
Michael Else conceded. "We can’t believe you
ran us so close when you were making so many
basic errors," is what their report claims was said.
And champagne was shared, but not in the leaky
Fairplay Cup. Instead, an icebucket was purloined
and filled with vintage bubbly.
The gauntlet has been thrown down for next
year. And if HFW score a hat trick, we might let
them keep the cup – the broken one, of course.