After four races Peter Harrison’s crew in Chernikeeff 4, skippered by Ian Walker and helmed by Ben Ainslie are leading the IMS 600 Class at the Admiral’s Cup. The crew of the Rodman 42 scored a pair of second places to sit on equal points with the Australian entry Aftershock, which has Adrian Stead on board as tactician.

Ainslie was clearly pleased with the team’s performance, commenting: “We had really good starts in both races but it didn’t really work out as planned. Then we made some good decisions and sailed pretty well to take the two second places. We have a good mix of enthusiastic young sailors and some experienced heads on board that is gelling really well.”

Harrison’s Sailability RORC team lies in third place overall, leading the British teams’ challenge on the Royal Prince Alfred team from Australia and King Juan Carlos of Spain’s Telefonica Movistar Sailing team that is fielding the untouchable new Kerr 55.

For the Sailability CCYC team, Andy Green’s crew on board Chernikeeff 3 lies in fifth position, the second placed British boat in the IM600 fleet. Green’s crew, sailing with Hannah Stodel as tactician, posted a fifth place in the final race of the day.

Racing started on time, with a 14 knot south-easterly breeze providing stronger conditions than the light winds yesterday. The first race saw Chernikeeeff 4 take the pin end of the line, with Aftershock slightly to windward. At the windward mark, Walker’s crew came into the mark slightly behind French entry Paprec Recyclage and Telefonica Movistar, but a tight rounding by the British crew saw them emerge ahead. Walker’s crew had a gybing duel with the Spanish team down the run, allowing the Royal Southern entry to round ahead at the leeward mark.

The windward leg saw Aftershock take the lead, displaying good upwind speed to round ahead of Chernikeeff 4 by 15 seconds. Walker’s men recovered to cut the lead to seven seconds by the final mark and then overtake on the beat to the finish to take line honours.

Race two in the big boat fleet saw the Spanish and Australian monopoly upset for the first time, as Chernikeeff 2 hit the start line perfectly at the pin end of the line and sailed a very strong race to finish second on corrected time.

Helmsman Ian Budgen commented: “We had a really good start at the pin end of the line, to win the left. Good teamwork paid off and Chris Main worked really well with Jules Salter to put the boat in the right places.”