2022 Doublehanded Results

Written by Kate Cope

The 2022 series was 6 races: 5 RORC races and the Solo Offshore club Round the Isle of Wight (RIOW) race which was opened to doublehanded entries for the first time.

Our Overall winner for the second year running was the Sunfast 3200R2 Cora sailed by Tim Goodhew and Kelvin Matthews. Their results were sparkling with a win in both the St Malo and RIOW races, a 2nd in the Cherbourg race and a 4th in De Guingand Bowl. Starting first with IRC 3, in most races this year Cora has been off like the proverbial rat up a drainpipe leaving the other boats wondering just quite how they make their boat go so fast.

Second is new boat to the series Red Ruby a Sunfast 3300 sailed by Christina & Justin Wolfe. They hail from near Seattle, USA yet have chosen to compete in the UK doublehanded series as they had heard it to be the best doublehanded racing in the world. Jet lag certainly didn’t hold them back with second places in both Myth of Malham and De Guingand Bowl. This was followed up by a 3rd in the DH Nationals Race#2.  Red Ruby won our Mixed, Corinthian and Masters Trophies. 

Third was JAGO, a J109 with a string of great inshore and offshore race results to its name. Mike Yates sailed all but 1 race with young sailors Hamish Pimm and Will Holland. On Myth of Malham Mikes co-skipper had a medical issue so Hamish, normally the bowman on inshore races, got the call with just 1 hrs notice to get to the Marina – they went on to win IRC3 in the race.  JAGO’s best DH results were two 2nd places in St Malo and the DH Nationals Race#2

The winning Youth boat was Chilli Pepper sailed by Father and Daughter Duo Jim and Ellie Driver. Chilli Pepper also came 2nd in the mixed category. Chilli Pepper have been going from strength to strength this season with their best result a 2nd in the RIOW race, Outside the series they had an Overall win in Morgan Cup beating fellow doublehanders Dee Caffari and Shirley Robertson on Rockit by a mere 35s. Chilli Pepper together with Diablo (Nick Martin/ Cal Finlayson) represented the DH class associations to win the John West Trophy for the best two boat team in the St Malo race

Second in the Youth category was Malice with Mike Moxley and youth sailor Tom Bridge. Malice are the only boat that qualify for both Youth (<25yrs) and Masters (Combined age +90years). Their standout performance was the Cherbourg race where they won IRC Overall as well as IRC 2 and DH.

This year we introduced a Class 2 for boats rated lower than 0.990. The winner of Class 2 was Morning After sailed by Stuart Greenfield and Lou Clayton. Their best result was the St Malo race where they were 1st in DH and  3rd in IRC Overall from a big fleet.

Finally we wanted to reward the team who had the best Social media this season and that is Team Tigris. Gavin Howe and his team of Young Tigris have written interesting content after every race and its great to see Offshore racing through the eyes of the Young Tigris co-skippers. Young Tigris (Saiorse Reynolds / Mike O’Donovan) also won the Youth trophy in the St Malo race. 

Major Doublehanded Results Outside the Series

RORC Overall Series:

The lack of crew has been no barrier to the doublehanded teams doing incredibly well in the classes we compete in the RORC series – IRC 2 and 3. 

Overall Season Points: 1st Jangada, 2nd Diablo and 3rd Bellino with DH teams in 8 of the top 10 spots

Class IRC 2: 1st Bellino, 2nd Diablo, 3rd Chilli Pepper with DH teams in 9 of the top 10 spots

Class IRC 3: 1st Jangada, 2nd Cora and 3rd JAGO with DH teams in 7 of the top 10 spots. 

IRC Two Handed Nationals:

The partnership with the RORC race team is very collaborative. This year we changed the format of the IRC Two handed Nationals to accommodate our preference for Offshore v Inshore racing with a new format of two offshore races. Participation grew from 8 boats in 2021 to 17 boats in 2022. Congratulations to JAGO (Mike Yates / Will Holland) who was the Overall winner, followed by Bellino (Deb Fish/ Rob Craigie) in 2nd and Diablo (Nick Martin/ Cal Finalyson) in 3rd. 

Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland: This year the Sevenstar RBI was a real marathon with light winds for the first week and a completely upwind course stretching the race out to almost 15 days even for the winning teams. The doublehanded boats were the eventual winners with 8 out of the top 10 places in Overall IRC. Congratulations to Overall winner Jangada beating Bellino by a mere 7mins . Mzungu were third after match racing Bellino all the way round. These two boats were still tacking on each other off Selsey Bill hours before the finish. Mzungu must win the prize for best catering with pizza and Ice cream on Day 4 despite no fridge and a fantastic cake shaped as Britain & Ireland presented to them by fans at the end.

SSE Renewables Round Ireland: We had 3 of our boats compete in the Round Ireland race. Congratulations to Deb Fish and Rob Craigie on Bellino who was first in the Doublehanded class. Wild Pilgrim ( Dan Jones / Jon Tyrrell) was 3rd and Asgard was 4th skippered by young sailors Matthew Bird and Oliver Hill.