Time: 16:40 – by Steffan Meyric Hughes
Day five at the Richard Mille Cup: 19 June, 2026
After an epic crew party of barbecue, craic and the ceilidh at Kelburn Castle the night before, crews awoke today in the real world of conventional spellings, rain, and a wind forecast to die away in the afternoon. The announcement from race officer David Kent at the morning crew briefing to run a short sprint course, was a welcome one - particularly with the champagne sailing conditions (10 knots and sun) forecast for the next day, Saturday 20 June, pushing the lay day back to the Sunday.
Proceedings kicked off at the customary 10.30am, with Classes One and Two sailing a ten-mile course in Largs Bay, and Classes Three and Four following a six-mile course. Wind was enough to shake out sails and any cobwebs from the night before, as the fleet ran north, following the shore of the mainland in limited visibility.
In Class One, the schooners, Elena quickly established a convincing lead over Atlantic at the head of the fleet and easily held her position to the end. Kismet, flying all her canvas in a little over 15 knots of wind, got off to another great start and, like Elena, left the other two boats in her class (Class Four, small gaffers) and took off for the horizon, her white sails disappearing into the mist that hung just 200ft or so over Largs Bay.
With the rain in moderation and wind easing, those who had been wary of going out into the dreich might have been pleasantly surprised. And the battle of the day, between the two small Class Four gaffers, Patna and Thalia, was under way.
The cutter Thalia, which looked content bringing up the rear, with no topsail flying, was following the yawl Patna, which was flying her smaller topsail and mizzen, with two reefs in the main. Then the flying jib whistled up Thalia’s forestay, and she started gaining ground on her rival. After hardening onto a close reach after the first mark, Thalia moved to overtake Patna on the windward side, and Patna luffed up to block her, but Thalia, with the greater boat speed, matched her luff, carried her way, overtook and carried on, opening up her lead and leaving the crew of Patna shaking out their two reefs in search of more power in the lessening breeze.
On the beat back south to Largs, Thalia held her lead, heeling to the breeze and trucking along at a good seven knots, witness to the incredible spectacle of Elena storming past, heeling hard on the wind and making 12 knots through the water. Atlantic appeared out of nowhere a few minutes later, on a long tack towards the Largs shore, cutting off Thalia’s tacking angles and leaving the smaller yacht in her dirty wind for long enough for Patna to edge ahead and take line honours over her rival by 40 seconds.
The two yachts racing in Class Three today (small bermudans) had a close battle too, Sonny’s greater sail area and power proving advantageous against the 8-M Saskia, Britain’s representative in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which had proved to be so slippery and quick in the lighter conditions at the start of the week. Again, it was a close finish, with Sonny crossing the finish line just two minutes ahead of her rival on both elapsed and corrected time.
“Patna is rigged as a cruising yacht, with a third less sail than she was designed with” said Greg Powlesland, co-owner with his wife Katie Fontana, after the race. She’s campaigned as one too, having cruised up on her own hull from Cornwall over a fortnight to attend this event. She’s also the only yacht in this fleet (or any other fleet for that matter) to have cotton sails, which are hard to handle when they are wet, according to crewman Noel Probyn, explaining the delay in shaking out the reefs, which had helped Thalia establish her lead earlier in the race. Greg has been enjoying the demands of seamanship placed on competitors over the last few days, with the wind holes seeing the fleet constantly compressing and expanding through the course, with a need to make tactical decisions at every turn. As for today’s racing, it was, he adds, “very wet – and great fun!”
That’s set to end tomorrow, with sun and wind forecast, and no rain on the horizon for the rest of the Richard Mille Cup, giving crews a chance to dry out their boots and ready themselves for the longer courses ahead.
At the end of day five, and after four races, the leaders on corrected time are as follows:
Class One: Elena
Class Two: Mariquita
Class Three: Sonny
Class Four: Kismet