Right from the start, Rob Archibald & Andrew Ward, sailing for Redhouse Yacht Club on RYC Challenge Orion, got across the start in clean air and led the fleet from the start, towards the weather mark. Once away, they were never challenged for their lead. This was the first time, since the 1960’s, that a yacht from Redhouse Yacht Club has won a Lipton Cup Race.

Coming into today’s race, Royal Natal Yacht Club’s Ricky Robinson, sailing Orion B2G2 was tied with defending champion Greg Davis sailing Colorpress, so today the pressure was on, for the young Durban team, to keep close to one of the most successful sailors ever to sail The Lipton Cup Challenge. To put this into perspective, the team on Knysna Yacht Club’s Colorpress has a total accumulated age of 221 years and between the 5 of them, have won the Lipton Cup Challenge an amazing 31 times!

Another team worth noting are Andrea Giovannini & Markus Progli, who are representing False Bay Yacht Club and sailing Team Intasure Marine Insurance. They got away cleanly at the start and were 3rd for the first half of the 12 mile race. Just after the halfway point, they managed to squeeze past Royal Natal’s Orion B2G2, who were later to lose another place to Knysna’s Colorpress, which gave the overall lead to Greg Davis on Colorpress by a single point. With their 2nd finish today, Andrea Giovannini & Markus Progli are lying 3rd, just one point behind Ricky Robinson on Orion B2G2.

With two more days of racing, this year’s Lipton Cup Challenge is wide open and any one of the top three teams are in the position to win the event and host the Challenge in their home waters next year.

Kind Regards
 
Andrew Ward