The creation of a Super-Zero class with its own race series at Skandia Cowes Week 2007, is all set to entice the owners and skippers of the world’s largest and fastest ocean racing yachts to compete at next year’s event (4-11 August). This new class meets the demands of the owners of mainstream Class 1 boats to separate canting keelers from boats with fixed keels.

Recognising that the majority of these big boats will only be able to fit a few days racing into their schedule prior to the start of the Rolex Fastnet, the new Super-Zero Series will comprise three days of racing encompassing a round-the-cans race on Friday, 3 August – the day before the start of the 2007 Week, as well as a race
around the Island on Wednesday, 8 August and a short coastal race on Thursday, 9 August.

CEO of Cowes Combined Clubs (CCC), Stuart Quarrie, explains: “A typical Cowes Week course will provide tight Solent racing for these big boats on the day before the remaining 1,000 boats start their week’s racing. This allows the big boats the space they need and gives the Event a spectacular platform from which to launch the Week.”

Virtually everyone in the racing world would agree that pitting boats with canting keels against their fixed keel cousins is unsatisfactory and is more akin to racing multihulls against monohulls. Therefore, regardless of rating, owners/skippers of any boat of over 14 metres LOA that has a canting keel and that wants to take part in the Regatta, will have to sail in this new Super-Zero Series, unless they fix their keel amidships and re-rate accordingly.

In a joint initiative between CCC and the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC), there is further incentive for the big boats to sign up to the Super Zero Series. To coincide with the Rolex Fastnet Race, held every two years, a new sequence of high profile stages will include the Channel Race, the Skandia Cowes Week Super-Zero Series and the Rolex Fastnet Race.

The Super-Zero class has been created specifically for any boat wishing to race that is between 14 and 30 metres LOA and with an IRC rating of 1.420 and upwards, whether it has a fixed or canting keel.

In addition, regardless of rating, owners/skippers of any boat of over 14 metres LOA that has a canting keel and that wants to take part in Skandia Cowes Week will have to sail in this new Super-Zero Series, unless they fix their keel amidships and re-rate accordingly.