COWES WEEKLOCAL boat Panther, skippered by James Stableford and team from Island Sailing Club, won overall Black Group, beating Adam Gosling’s Corby 30 Yes!.
Celebrating with his crew at the Sail for Gold bar, Stableford said: "We are delighted, and fairly shocked because it wasn’t easy by any means.
"We used to do a lot of IRC racing with Panther but she is now 18 years old, slightly tired and it’s not a big budget programme, plus we don’t have an IRC certificate for her.
"She’s a local boat and we always do the ISC Tuesday evening races, so we thought we’d sail ISCRS. Hopefully own win will encourage more low-budget sailors to come and join in."
The racing at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week is split into Black Group (larger yachts with cabins, capable of racing offshore) and White Group (smaller class dayboats).
Trophies are awarded at the end of the week to the best performing yacht in each group, which means the competition to win Black or White Group is always extremely close fought.This year has been no exception with some of the most competitive racing ever seen in Black Group in particular.
As an indication of how close the racing was, there were at least ten boats in with a chance of taking the overall trophy in Black Group as they went into the final race on Friday.