Immaculate performances from Waverider and Dog Tag placed them first and second respectively in the Skandia Life Cowes Week Black Group.

The brief was simple for the J 109 Waverider if she was to take the Black Group win at Skandia Life Cowes Week after emerging as overnight leader – another win was the only safe way to secure it. And duly win she did, avoiding any trouble at the start despite two others in Class 10 IRC Bowsprit being called OCS. At the close Waverider had a lead of nearly 12 minutes on corrected time.

Marie-Claude Heyn, skipper and helm of Waverider, told us “it’s a brand new boat, fresh out of the box and only arrived a week before Cowes Week so we didn’t know how well we’d do. I won the Britannia Cup in 1998, and always come to Skandia Life Cowes Week, but haven’t done this well before.”

Waverider scored six firsts, a fifth and a ninth this week. “The ninth on Tuesday was a let down,” Marie Claude said. “We were well ahead of the fleet, but sailed into a hole off Calshot and the fleet sailed round us. Other than that we are surprised and pleased to win Black Group overall, although we had a good team, good tactics and good boat speed. We’re the UK J Boat importers so we know how to make one go. It’s been difficult sailing with shifty conditions. But we’ve got ourselves on the right side of the wind and tide.”

Runner-up in Black Group and winner of Class 4 IRC by a very healthy margin was the HOD 35 Dog Tag. Skipper Peter Scholfield was, “happy but frustrated because we went into today’s race knowing that we’ve already won Class 4, but we had to win, and Waverider had to come second or worse. We were lucky, had a great race and won. But Waverider also won, they sailed an immaculate series and hats off to them.

“Our second place finish on Thursday was very close – we lost by just three seconds, but three seconds too many. We’re thrilled to have won our class; everyone’s very happy, we have a great crew and we are looking forward to the Commodores’ Cup next week.”