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.
The late great Fairplay Cup
Good things come to those who wait, was the lesson learnt from this year’s Fairplay Cup.
Last year’s event got off to a cracking start as the Fairplay Cup itself fell to the ground broke into three pieces. So this year’s contest is for its replacement: as the report on last year’s race noted, “next year’s cup will be different ... but will be the same mix of good sailing in good company that it has always been.”
It was all these things and more: more entries than ever before – 24 boats contested the glassware – and more time on the water. That’s marketing-speak for ‘things ran a bit late’.
As in previous years, the Cup attracted old hands and new, but this year, all but one of those taking part were repeat bookings. This year’s newcomers were Ince & Co, skippered by Dominic Hurndall – an experienced racing helmsman and due to take part in the Round The Island race around the Isle of Wight just two days later. How would his experience stack up against the mixture of skill and ignorance that makes the Fairplay Cup a great leveller?
Cup entrants can choose whether to use a skipper provided by the event organiser Sunsail or, if they have a suitably skilled colleague, can enter as a bareboat crew, as Ince had done. And this year, half of the entries took that opportunity, providing a unique opportunity to pit sailing experience against familiarity with the specific boats and the local waters that comes with a local expert.
Among the self-skippered boats to look out for as the day unfolds is Michael Else & Co, who have entrusted their fate to James Gair, whose Shoreberths company races and manages yachts worldwide. LOC’s crew could boast considerable experience, with their prerace conversation “revolving around previous Fairplays, Round-the-Islands, Fastnets and Sydney-Hobarts”, their post-race log recalls.
The Safety at Sea International crew boasted some all-round abilities: a round-Britain sailing veteran, a marathon runner, a tri-athlete and an experienced helmsman, flown in specially from an IHS – our parent company – office in Boston. Throw in the allocated Sunsail skipper, who was “fresh from three years instructing in the Canaries,” and “optimism at the morning’s briefing was rising as fast as the day’s temperature”, its log-keeper reported later.
Yet our pre-race marketing says that experience is not necessary. And it isn’t – for every crewmember on the Fairplay Cup with salt water in their veins, they will be another who has never been on a yacht before or who has no experience of racing. And the Cup’s history shows that crews made up of novices can succeed where more experienced teams fail.
But success can be measured in many ways. There is winning the trophy, of course, but for others the goal is to improve on last year, or to help cement a staff team or reward key clients. It is certainly not a cliché to say that what matters is the taking part.
Take the Wärtsilä crew, for example, who described themselves at the start of the day as like “a pile of ingredients added on top of each other.” At the end of the day, however, “the recipe had taken a good shape, which was truly the highlight of the event.”
Castrol was more concerned about the taking apart. As they prepared their boat, they found that it had an unserviceable toilet, which had to be dismantled by a Sunsail technician. Fortunately, they had learned a lesson from last year and gone easy on the oysters the night before; their boat’s name, Oyster Roulette, had been chosen in homage to that experience.
And then its crew was taken apart by a phone call. Just moments after the team photo had been taken, their skipper Joel Strullu received news of a family matter that demanded his immediate return to France, taking his considerable experience with him and relieving the boat of a second crew member who left to assist him while another set about booking flights for his return home. Problems inside the boat can be easily spotted. Problems below the water are not so easy to spot, as Gray Page discovered. “Three things scuppered our dreams,” their subsequent report said. “First, our boat had no rudder. Second, our boat had no rudder. Thirdly, our boat had no rudder.” They did not know that it had no rudder at the time, however, and the consequences will become clear later.
There are three other important factors in any Fairplay Cup: the weather, the weather and the weather. And this year, it looked good. A stiff breeze welcomed competitors as they assembled at Sunsail’s HQ in Port Solent, near Portsmouth, for the traditional and welcome breakfast of bacon rolls.
It provided an opportunity for last-minute tactical discussions or, for those who did not travel down the night before, some preliminary planning. Take the Seafarers UK crew, for example, taking part for the second time and establishing a new landmark as the official charity for the event. Strategy? “We hope the skipper will tell us,” said one crew member, who conceded that there was little sailing experience among the group.
The ABB team, some of whom are Fairplay Cup veterans of some years standing, had arrived the evening before and looked forward to improving on their previous highest placing of fifth. But “there was an early blow to the team as one of the old hands, an experienced club racer, was unable to attend due to commitments at the Seawork exhibition”, the team wrote in their log. At least someone puts work commitments first. “Nonetheless, the team gathered on Wednesday evening for an intensive training session in the pub concluding in the hotel bar early on Thursday morning.”
London Offshore Consultants is here for the third time, aiming “to match or better last year’s place but more importantly come home with limbs and egos intact!” Testbank is back for a second attempt, having achieved third place at their first attempt. “We might let others have a chance this year,” said one of the crew, “and hoist our spinnaker.” Before their shock discovery, Gray Page set out with hopes of improving on their sixth place last year, hoping for a top-three finish.
Delay
Further discussion over breakfast came to an abrupt end as Fairplay’s man with the yachting shoes was summoned to say a few introductory words into the microphone. This led to the day’s first delay. Knobs were twiddled, while time passed. New batteries were fetched, while time passed. Eventually, the bell behind the bar was rung, the 200 or so competitors fell silent and the pre-race briefing starts – late and with no electronic support. Race officer Simon Grover reveals the muchanticipated weather forecast. The breeze may seem half-decent now, but its strength will be variable, he says, from the north or north east.
With a high pressure to the north west and a low building up over France, the direction comes as no surprise, but the lack of precision raises a hollow laugh from many. For the afternoon, sea breezes of Force 3-4 will build, further complicating the picture.
He makes the traditional – and traditionally futile – observation that “sailing is a non-contact sport” and reminds the assembled crowd of shipping professionals to keep clear of ships, the “big things that float”. With a final reminder that he can dictate the sail plan if necessary, hesends all the competitors to prepare their boats and set off.
Or rather, to wait until the tide comes in: there could be as much as half an hour’s delay, the committee boat advised over the radio as the teams got ready. With high water not due till mid afternoon, it was near low water when the Fairplay Cup fleet got ready to leave. Lloyd’s Register Rail spotted the problem quickly and it upset their plans, which had been to set off “with our usual novice crew of marine-adopted railwayman” and get underway for “some basic RYA skills training and tuition on boat terminology.”
But on stepping onto the pontoon, “there didn’t appear to be any water around the boat to speak of to get going; just a healthy mudbank lurking 20ft to the left.” The Sunsail committee boat showed how to solve the problem and was first away: “All you have to do is drive the boat at full pelt into the mud, wiggle it around from side to side and proceed to dredge the bed with the keel thus providing a nice groove for all the other boats to follow in,” they observed. “Easy!”
Sunsail has about 40 identical boats, which it moors either side of a long pontoon, up to three boats deep in places, so there is an advantage in being the outside boat, as LOC was, in making a quick getaway. “Despite warnings of a very low tide, we made our way down, closely following in the channel dredged by the committee boat’s keel”, its log of the day records.
Some crew were more prepared than others. On the Gray Page boat, “our one lady sailor, an experienced racer, had brought a tin of lubricant with her.” Amid “a liberal spray of double entendres” she hopped around the boat “squirting anything that moved (or was meant to) and loosening anything and anyone who’d listen.”
With a first race set for 11.30, the first boats away get more shake-down time than others. More time, for example, to practise a spinnaker hoist, even if it does end up as “a champagne glass”, as the Michael Else crew found. LR Rail had more success, despite adopting a high risk strategy of trying just one practice gybe and then moving straight on to spinnaker practice. It went up and took the boat across the Solent at a good speed. “How quickly, though, Ryde pier starts to loom in front and then the realisation that, with the wind strengthening, we ought to get the thing down quickly and safely.”
Ah yes, safety. On the SASI boat, its crew had seen how other boats were struggling with their spinnakers, so “an early tactical decision was made to race without it in the first race.” And the race officer clearly agreed, announcing over the radio that, for the first race, no spinnakers will be flown and lifejackets are compulsory. This marks the start of the beginningof the preparations for the first race, but time is marching on and the committee boat takes a while to lay its start line and display the course: a simple triangular course, sailed twice, with a five-minute countdown. Pacific Basin’s crew was composed largely of experienced sailors and felt confident at this stage. “It took no time at all to get used to the boat”, they found, and their ‘foredeck monkeys’ practised cutting spinnakers loose. Another pair “warmed their muscles for some heavy ‘baboon winching’ action” while their helmsman,an international tactician, stood “calm and collected at the helm, watching over the tribe of primates.”
Delayed start
Meanwhile, the problems are beginning to emerge on Gray Page’s boat. “We thought something might be awry when, after putting up the mainsail and jib and turning off the engine, the boat no longer responded in any meaningful fashion to wheel movements,” they reported later. “ The more seasoned sailors on the team belittled the initial helming efforts of their ‘fair-weather sailor’ host.
There followed “much head shaking, groaning, cussing and, at one point, the salty tears of a grown (well almost) man before we started to realise that we were staring certain defeat in the face before we had even crossed the startline for Race 1.” But they could not pin-point the problem. “Lubricant or no lubricant, this was going to be a challenge!”
With the start delayed to 11.35, the five minute hooter sounds. On ABB’s boat, their Sunsail skipper, who “was pleasant enough,” when they first met, “but we were not sure if he was a racer or not” now “moved up a gear in the countdown to the first race,” their log recalls. “He must have assessed our potential as high.”
It has often been said that “there is too much month left at the end of the money” and the same thought is relevant here. Witnessed from the press boat, those five minutes were remarkable. Like any spectators, the photographer, the reporter, the boat’s two crew and the ex-Royal Navy Commodore – who is director of Seafarers UK and was at the helm – could all see what the various skippers clearly could not: there would be too much countdown left at the end of the start line.
And so it was that, with a good 10 seconds left to run, the first boat crossed the line, followed by the second and many others. Calling out the offending sail numbers would have been impossible, so a general recall was declared, adding further delay to the start of the event.
ABB’s crew confirmed later that they had been one of the offenders, but still felt harddone by. “We were over the line at 10 seconds to go”, they admitted, but “ducked back inside just before the gun” and were disappointed by the recall. “We protested to the committee boat that we were inside the line, to which the reply was ‘you started it’.”
It was frustrating for others, too. Pacific Basin, for example, reckoned they had “got off to a flying start, until a restart was called.” Their second attempt was not so promising. And the Wärtsilä crew “had brilliantly managed to get into a start position on that occasion and did not achieve the same feat on the real departure of the race”, they said later. To be precise, they started last.
But Michael Else & Co welcomed the restart. “There was general confusion about how badly we started although it quickly became apparent that we were actually pretty close to the line unlike the numerous boats in front of us”, they noted. “The general recall was very well received.”
So did LOC, who were “slightly behind the ‘over the line’ pack on the recalled start” but on the second attempt “got off to a cracking start mid-way along the line” and were rewarded in the evening with a trophy for being the first boat legally across the start line.
The race officer was determined that the second race would have a clean start. Having caught up most of the earlier delays, the earliest he could now get the race underway would be 11.45, and he did not want anyone messing it up: there would be a 20% penalty for anyone over the line this time, he warned. In other words, their eventual placing would be increased by 20% of the number of entrants – an additional five places in this year’s event – on top of the places lost as they re-crossed the line to complete a legal start. “I don’t want to have to get the Z-flag out”, he radioed across the fleet, referring to the code flag used to indicate that the rule was in force. It did the trick.
Gray Page’s crew were starting to understand the difficulties they faced. “We crossed the line toward the head of the fleet, and tacked”, their report recalls. “What happened next was almost surreal and summed up in the immortal words of our host: “please can someone tell me why I am looking at the stern of almost every boat in this race? Didn’t we just cross the start well ahead of most of them?” Yet they got underway without hitting anyone.
Elsewhere, however, there was a collision and, perhaps inevitably, it involved the SASI boat. Its log-keeper reported later how, as they had boarded the boat that morning, they had failed to notice “the huge targets evidently attached to port and starboard sides.” And it was on the starboard one that a fellow competitor scored a bullseye, “bringing the boat to a virtual halt”, its log records.
They had hardly recovered from that setback than their port-hand target received attention. “Given the safety theme of the boat, the crew saw little option but to move swiftly back down the field and remove the risk of attracting further collisions”, they decided and, “in keeping with the spirit of the day, a decision was made to make no appeal against either boat.”
Lloyd’s Register Rail also reported seeing a “tidy bump” when one boat T-boned another; “it’s impressive how the Kevlar stands such impacts with only a slight fallout of gel coat spraying everywhere,” their log notes. But it was also nearly on the receiving end of a collision from a crew who “seemed to have mastered the art of calling starboard to gain right of way.
They hadn’t gone to the next level of understanding of the rules such that if two boats are both on starboard, the windward one gives way; probably six inches to spare from losing the damage deposit but all well in the end,”
they reported.
Others were more public in their remarks. Although in previous years, the day’s introductory remarks had said that no protests will be heard, this year’s omitted that advice and a couple of boats did issue protests, with the Baltic Exchange Sailing Association protesting about two boats at the same time. The skipper of one of them, their reporter commented later, “should not be let out with a pram considering his ramming of our transom and failure to accept he was in the wrong.” Those complaints have yet to be heard; the protest committee will be meeting on Christmas Day, Fairplay’s reporter said during the evening reception – although it is doubtful that the protests were ever submitted in writing, as the International Sailing Federation rules require.
The first leg is, of course, a tack to the windward mark with the usual dilemma of whether to choose port or starboard. The starboard tack appears to be favoured by the tide, allowing some lee-bowing benefit, but the port option takes the boats into deeper water and perhaps better wind. Two boats – ABB and BV Marine – persist with the initial starboard tack for longer than the rest.
The team to watch is surely last year’s winner, Holman Fenwick Willan, which appears to be well placed for an early arrival at the mark. But it puts in a short tack on its approach and loses some time. “We didn’t get it together today,” its skipper conceded later.” At the mark, two boats are neck and neck: Fairplay and LOC, followed closely by ABB, HFW – taking the buoy wide – Michael Else and BV Netherlands.
The second leg was a short reach, with little change in the positions, although Michael Else had recovered a position by overtaking HFW, followed by the downwind leg to complete the first lap. It proved to be a good leg for LOC and ABB, both of which overhauled Fairplay, pushing them into third place, ahead of Michael Else. By now a gap had opened up between these leaders and the rest, led by HFW, BV Netherlands, SeaTec UK and the Baltic Exchange Sailing Association so, after they rounded the mark and started their second lap, the leaders were tacking back through the approaching fleet, which concludes with Gray Page, Seafarers UK, Bureau Veritas UK, Lloyd’s Register Rail, Lloyd’s Register EMEA (Energy) and SASI. It was here that Gray Page’s problems become obvious to everyone: as it rounds the mark, it continues to rotate, making two complete revolutions while the other boats pass it by. And the cause is becoming clear: the boat must have little or no rudder.
For the second lap, the fleet is well spread out and the positions should be more stable. From the press boat, three boats – LOC, Michael Else and ABB – all look well placed to make the windward mark. ABB in particular is well inshore and on port tack, switching to starboard just in front of Michael Else as their courses intersect, taking the first place at the mark, with Michael Else, LOC and HFW now the first four crews, with Fairplay back in fifth, ahead of BV Netherlands and SeaTec UK.
The next leg sees ABB stretch its lead, making it seem like a procession found the final mark and to the finish, with all boats goosewinged, in the absence of spinnakers. “It’s ABB’s to lose”, commented Fairplay’s snapper on the press boat yet, as the press boat raced to the finish line, the gap between the two leaders seemed to be narrowing.
As the fleet approached the finish line, a yacht came into view from the right-hand side of the course, intent on sailing along the finish line, with three similar craft in pursuit. It soon became apparent that the Fairplay Cup was not the only race being held that morning. These interlopers were heading for their next mark – the very buoy that marked the outer end of the Fairplay Cup finishing line. And they were on starboard tack. To add to the confusion, a Wightlink ferry left its birth in nearby Ryde, its route taking it across the line.
Close finish
After a race lasting nearly two hours, ABB crossed the line in first place, about 30 seconds ahead of Michael Else. They put their good position down to their jib trimmers, who “worked hard to improve their performance after every tack with a little team talk each time.” Their only error was to find themselves on the wrong side of that ferry, “but no matter, as it was a two horse race to the finish with the ABB horse having the edge.”
Fairplay had managed to make up ground and finished third, ahead of LOC in fourth after a tussle with HFW, who proved “adept at covering us as we goosewinged our way to the finishing line.” In fact, HFW did pull ahead at one point, but “we managed to just edge ahead again about 100 yards before the line”, pushing their rivals into in fifth and BV Netherlands to sixth. As for Gray Page, they arrived at the line after “a massive amount of main sheet and mainsail work saw us coax the boat to 20th position in Race 1. No small feat of sailing ability and skill, even if we do say so ourselves.”
Wärtsilä was also pleased with its finishing place of 15th, having passed nine boats following its disappointing start. “It was great fun speeding up between vessels and getting in front of many of them.” Its reporter paid tribute to their invited skipper, whose “skill extended well beyond his duties to command a safe vessel.” As the race went on, their log reports, “he took good care of the crew, especially the novices who were taught how to be useful ballast as well as how to tidy a spinnaker.”
For one boat, its experience so far had been more than long enough, and Gray Page asked for a replacement boat before the second race. Fortunately, there was another already afloat and the swap was made, but it extended the lunch interval and added further delay to the race schedule. And, to cap it all, “we left the lubricant on the other boat!”
By now, the wind was dropping and the forecast sea breezes were wreaking havoc with its direction. The afternoon race would require some careful preparation.
Second Race: Blowing in the wind
In the words of the famous Bob Dylan song, the answers to many important questions, “my friend, are blowing in the wind.” At this year’s Fairplay Cup, the wind carried questions rather than answers as the schedule blew away
Questions such as: what direction is the wind coming from? Will it stay in the same direction long enough to lay a start line? Will there be enough of it for the boats to beat the tide? Will Gray Page’s replacement boat arrive in time for the start? As the planned start time came and went, the answer, my friend, was itself blowing in the wind.
It was soon apparent that the wind would simply not be sufficient to stem the tide, so the race officer transferred operations to the northern side of the Solent, just outside the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour. This also reduced the
distance the replacement boat would have to travel to get back in the fleet and it reappeared as the race officer was setting his start line.
All looked good: a course was set and a fiveminute warning sounded. Then the plans were blown away as the wind swung again, making a new start line and a new course essential. This further delay was welcome for the crew on the SASI boat.
After their lunch, they discovered that “both the main and reserve batteries were as flat as the Solent had become,” presenting them with the challenge of catching up with the rest of the fleet and getting to the start line. But there was a benefit: “While other boats idled, waiting for the start, SASI had the benefit of honing its technique in the very light winds.” It just made it, albeit at the back of the field.
An hour’s delay
It was a full hour after the scheduled start that the second race finally went under starter’s orders and the race officer called for a clean start with no pushing. “Let’s get this thing over with,” he said, revealing some of the frustration he was feeling over the conditions.
It was a good start for what was planned as a short race – one lap round a simple triangular course. Simple, that is, if one of the buoys had been marked on the chart. In the Solent, there are a large number of buoys placed specifically as racing marks and local businesses sponsor their upkeep.
But as the sponsorships change, so do the names on the buoys. The charts on the boats had last year’s names; the race officer called out this year’s. And one was different, causing confusion on some boats and a radio call to the committee boat; its location will be found in the buoy list, the fleet was told, sending navigators searching for another piece of paper.
That hardly mattered on the Michael Else boat. “Confusion prevailed while planning for Race 2 when we discovered that someone had binned the buoy list from the chart table.”
For ABB, “after wafting about for what seemed like hours, the second race start was nothing like as good as the first, despite the furious shouting and balling from the skipper, both to his crew (who had clearly lost their edge over lunch) and to any boat close enough to shout at (and some that weren’t).”
HFW was the first across the line, with LR EMEA (Marine) and BV Netherlands also making good starts. But LOC and Fairplay were well to windward of the rest of the fleet, putting them both in attractive positions.
What’s going on?
Lloyd’s Register Rail summed up the situation in their report of the day’s events. With the failing wind, it became a very tactical race, “so much so that our crew found it difficult to understand what was going on and what was continuing to make the boat sail.” Some good wind shifts and some bad ones “found us near the back of the pack at the windward mark.” Spinnakers had been sanctioned for this race, so they hoisted theirs as they rounded the mark. “So far so good for the first 50m or so, then the wind decided to back, back, back as if it was chasing us round in a circle. We had no idea what was going on.”
By then it was too late. The race had been shortened and had become a simple out-andback course, making the windward leg the crucial element. And Fairplay’s beat to the mark took everyone by surprise, seemingly finding a breeze and a wind direction no one else could see. “We were dumbfounded to see Fairplay make excellent upwind speed, getting to the mark about four or five minutes before us,” acknowledged LOC. They did what they could on the spinnaker run, but “when the moment came, the raise was not the smoothest. We doubt that Fairplay was catchable in any event.”
SASI was having a better race. Following its poor start, “a decision to head well out and tack back seemed to be paying off as other boats struggled to find wind with their more direct courses.” As a result, they pulled back several places but then “the committee boat announced a disheartening shortening of the race and the crew had to settle for a five-place improvement from the first race.”
After their morning’s efforts, the Gray Page crewmembers were “a bit of a spent force, knackered and frustrated. Our hearts were in the beer fridge before we’d even rounded the final mark for the finishing leg.”
As for the Fairplay crew, they did not bother to hoist their spinnaker, such was their obvious lead. At least their skipper admitted to some luck in their remarkable performance. They had been forced inshore to avoid another boat and found that they got a lift from being close to the seawall and rode that lift to the mark. “We were happy bunnies at the windward mark,” he said. But it was also down to teamwork, he said; while he helmed the boat, the Sunsail skipper organised the crew.
The Fairplay Cup provides a unique opportunity to test that teamwork and many of this year’s competitors will return next year. To join them, book your place now – without delay.
Cup raises funds for Seafarers
In the IMO’s Year of the Seafarer, the Fairplay Cup paid tribute to the work of a leading organisation that works for seafarers’ welfare – the charity Seafarers UK. It is no stranger to the Cup, taking a boat in the 2009 event and donating souvenir mugs and bottled beer from Fullers Brewery, whose Seafarers Ale raises funds for the charity in pubs across the country.
And this year it was made the first official charity for the Cup, bringing its mugs and beer again, but also its chief executive, Commodore Barry Bryant, some raffle tickets and impressive prizes.
Bryant is an ex-Royal Navy Commodore and more used to driving – as he put it – warships into Portsmouth Harbour than the fast motor boat provided for Fairplay’s reporter and photographer. But its skipper felt his previous experience met his exacting requirements and let him navigate his way through the harbour – along the small boat channel, of course. In a mark of its support for the organisation, Fairplay’s publisher, IHS Fairplay, presented a cheque for £2,000 to Commodore Bryant at the evening reception, where three raffle prizes were on offer: a day’s charter from Sunsail, which supplies the Fairplay Cup boats and tickets for two people to attend a concert at Osborne House – once owned by Queen Victoria – on the Isle of Wight, donated by local ferry operator Wightlink, whose ships cross the
Solent. A third prize of a valuable bottle of wine was also in the draw,
which raised £840. The funds that Seafarers UK raises are channelled to other seafaring charities, providing support to people from the navy, commercial shipping and the fishing industry, and their dependents. For more information,
visit www.seafarers-uk.org.