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Neil Cox was a happy man as he and his wife Jan joined the Royal Southampton Yacht Club race officer team on the Royal Yacht Squadron Platform for the start of the 28th consecutive Island Double on Saturday, July 12.

He was the founder in 1981 of the Royal Southampton YC double handed race around the Isle of Wight, and the Club has run it every year since.

The 116 yachts on the start line were greeted with near perfect conditions for two handed racing.

A steady Westerly/South Westerly F4/5 wind made for a fairly easy beat down to the Needles, following which most yachts could hold their kites around the south of the Island, as far as Bembridge Ledge.

Unlike the earlier fully crewed ISC RTIR, the St Catherine's race was benign and there were no substantial gusts to cause crews problems.

Indeed, there were only five retiree's and few reports of boat damage, let alone anyone falling overboard.

All returning crews reported an excellent day's racing, even though many found the long beat up the eastern Solent against the tide very tiring. Matthew Clark and Tony Thackray, sailing their Faurox Quarter Tonner Lancelot said after completing the race: "this was our first two-handed race and a fantastic experience; one which we definitely will repeat."

Another new and welcome entry this year was the all carbon Moscow based multi-hull, Ivan 32, skippered by its designer Vitaly Beliokov and crewed by Andrej Pochinkin.

Despite being in the last class to start, Vitaly and Andrej distinguished themselves by being the second boat over the finish line, just four minutes after the Firebird Hyper, sailed by Duncan Barr and John Hanson in 6hrs 29mins. Ding Dong the Stewart 37 sailed by Chris Rustom and Mike Saqui was the first monohull to finish in just under 7hrs 14 mins, so this was not a year for records.

As often with round the Island races, this was a day dominated by the smaller boats with low handicaps. A Folkboat, Sonata, Trapper and Evolution 26 took the first four places in Class 2, but the closest racing was in Class 3, where only 28 seconds separated first from second boats and there was less than one and a half minutes between the first four.

Podium places on Corrected Time: Class 1: "No Doubt" - First 34.7 - Chris and Hannah Neve; "Ingwe" - Sunfast 32 - Steve/Dyke and Stan MacMillan; "Flawless J" - J105 - James Heald and Nick Burden Class 2: "Mandarin" - Folkboat - Paul Dunstan and crew; "Nimrod" - Hunter Sonata - Nigel and Hayley Pipe; "Google-Eye - Trapper 300 - Pat Stables and Nigel Hunter Class 3: "Alma" - Westerley GK33 - Alan Baker/Nigel Holt; "Miss Chatelaine" - Sweden 370 - Richard Spinney and Toby Collyer; "Squander" - Westerly Typhoon 37 - Bruce and Jams Ramsay Class 4: "Elinor" - Contessa 26 - Rupert and Justin Houlton; "Nooka" - Etap 21i" - Chris Charlesworth and Owain Peters; "Fusion III" - Gibsea 284 - Will Bridge and Tom Collins M/Hull: "Scooby III" - Dragonfly 800 - Simon Forbes and Sarah Thelwall; "Tinkerbell" - Farrier F27 - Rod Walker and Caroline Robertson; "Martine" - Farrier F27 - Bob Sharp and Neil Madden

12:06pm Tuesday 15th July 2008

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