A vintage performance last week saw Louis W Triay hold off the Bassadone Team and Charlie Stagnetto for an incredible win.

Sailing Report by Hamish Risso

Jubilee 1 – Sponsored by Beck’s Beer

The 2022 Kings Cup finally got underway last Thursday with 10 boats taking to the water in light Easterly winds after the first two races of the season had been cancelled due to a lack of wind.

The fantastic accuracy of the Race Officer’s line was highlighted by the fact that several boats at different points along the line all got good starts. Micko Sheppard-Capurro in Andromeda and Louis W. Triay got the best starts despite being at opposite ends of the start line whilst Hamish Risso in Fencer, who had started around the middle, was close behind.

As the boats headed up to Western Beach, most of the leading boats all tacked off to the South, except for Hamish who did not tack until the Spanish mole gave him no option but to follow the others.

In the tight battle that ensued Micko managed to get the upper hand over Louis, and he took advantage of this by taking Louis’ wind away and slowing him down.  This allowed the Bassadone Team (helmed by Pablo Villar in the absence of John Bassadone) and Hamish, who had benefited from a nice lift in the north, to both pass Louis and push him temporarily into 4th place.

At the first mark, it was Micko who managed to round the first mark in the lead followed closely by Hamish, Pablo Villar and Louis Triay.  By this stage these four boats had opened a large lead on the rest of the following fleet but as they headed onto the run, it was clear that things were going to change.

With a nice following wind in addition to a dying wind further down the course and a variable wind strength all over the course, it was soon clear that the rest of the fleet was going to catch up with the four leaders. Leading the charge were Charlie Stagnetto in Fairdawn, Charlie Lavarello in Nemesis and Nick Cruz in Eos and all of them joined the leading group as they approached the RAF mark.

Despite the gains from behind, Micko managed to hold his nerve to round the RAF first with Pablo and Louis close behind, whilst Hamish, who had gambled on the northern side of the course, had lost out in comparison to everyone and rounded in 6th place behind Charlie Stagnetto and Charlie Lavarello.

As the boats headed back up towards the North mole, the leading three boats were having a close battle with Louis using his experience to get the better of Micko and Pablo and put himself in the lead for the first time in the race.

On the other side of the course Charlie Lavarello and Nick Cruz had found themselves with a lovely northerly lift and it was soon clear that they had made large in roads on the other boats ahead of them to join the fun at the front.

With the very close racing and shifting conditions, the positions in the top 7 boats changed quite a lot on the remainder of the beat to Western Beach but one thing remained constant throughout – Louis Triay in the lead - and Louis managed to reach the mark first closely followed by Pablo and Micko.

On the run back to the dan buoy off the North Mole, Pablo tried in vain to attack Louis, but it was to no avail and Louis held off the challenges to round the last mark still clinging on to his lead. Behind them, Micko struggled on the run in the lighter winds on the southern side of the course and was passed by the trio of Charlie Stagnetto, Charlie Lavarello and Hamish Risso in the north.

This trio all rounded the mark together with Charlie Stagnetto managing to get water on the other two boats and round in third ahead of Charlie Lavarello and Hamish.

As the boats headed back to Western Beach for the last time, Louis was trying his hardest to stay ahead of the chasing boats with varying degrees of success, but another northerly lift gave Pablo and Charlie Stagnetto a big lift and Louis was forced to concede the lead to Pablo and take his stern.

Behind them, Micko had decided to also try his luck in the north, and this paid off in spectacular fashion.  In fact at one stage he looked to have taken the lead, but unfortunately for him the angle didn’t hold for long enough and he had to settle for a position behind the leading three boats albeit a lot closer to them and now ahead of both Charlie Lavarello and Hamish.

As the boats headed to the finish line, the scene was set for an extremely close finish with Louis coming in from the South and Pablo bearing down from the North leaving onlookers with no idea who was going to win.  Added to this mix was Charlie Stagnetto who had also managed to catch the two leading boats and set up a dramatic three boat finish.

However, any experienced onlookers should have known better than to write him off and just at the right time Louis managed to get the required extra pressure and lift Viking into the finish line ahead of his rivals to a great amount of cheering from his crew.

In the end Louis had won by a mere couple of seconds from Pablo who himself was a only 3 seconds ahead of Charlie Stagnetto.  A mere 5 seconds separating first from 3rd!!

Behind them the rest of the boats were just as close with Micko pipping Charlie Lavarello to 4th and Nick Cruz overtaking the hapless Hamish to take 6th.

Further back a special mention must go to David Collins who was skippering Niña and came in just behind Hamish in 8th place confirming the visible and vast improvement in their racing skills this year.

When the dust had settled, the competitors had a chance to appreciate such a close and constantly changing race with the gap between 1st and 7th being less than a minute and nearly all boats having had moments when they were fighting for the lead and others where they were struggling in 6th.

However, the main plaudits were being saved for one man and one man only, Louis Triay Snr who at the ripe old age of 93 (yes 93, that isn’t a typo), managed to roll back the years and not only beat all the best local sailors but also hold off the challenge of the extremely talented Bassadone Team for over an hour to take the inaugural race of the season in exceptional fashion.

It’s hard to put into words how impressive his win was, but I guess with Louis nothing is impossible and none of us should have been too surprised as we have seen it many times before!

Well done Louis!!

Jubilee 1 results

1.     Louis W. Triay Snr in Viking (Crew Louis B. Triay and Paul Henning)

2.     Pablo Villar in Emendek

3.     Charlie Stagnetto in Fairdawn

The next two races of the Jubilee Series will be raced next Saturday and it will be interesting to see whether Louis can continue his fine form or whether one of the other contestants can claim victory in what is proving to be a very competitive field.

Wooden Spoon & HMS Calpe Trophy

A week earlier, the “Tuning Up Race” - Wooden Spoon had been raced.  This is a handicap race where boats are sent off depending on their previous years position and the idea is that the faster boats start last and try to catch the theoretically slower boats.

However, on this occasion the fast boats were no challenge for those before them and an impressive performance by David Quach in Niña resulted in him being an comfortable winner of the first race of the season.  Behind him, Hamish Risso beat his rivals to claim the HMS Calpe Trophy as he was the first of the boats to start the handicap race in the final group.