Rolex RORC Commodores Cup

An LCSC team sailing J109 Jaguar of Burnham has been selected by the RYA to represent Great Britain in the Rolex RORC Commodores Cup this summer.

There are 4 British teams of 3 boats each across different IRC bands. The competition will be between at least 15 teams from 6 countries. All amateur crews apart from a small allowance for professionals - Jaguar can have 1 pro (ISAF Group 3 sailor) on board.

Racing takes place from 29th June to 6th July in the Solent and the Channel, it is a combination of inshore 'round the cans' and offshore racing. This makes the competition the highest possible level of international amateur yacht racing.

Jaguar's campaign is unique in being put together and supported by a sailing club, other campaigns are either run by the services or individual owners.

The LCSC team has been working together for over a year to get the crew and boat up to the required level, this has meant a significant amount of time and money with most weekends taken up since last October racing in the Hamble Winter Series, Royal Southampton Frostbites and the Warsash Spring Series as well as mid week meetings.

A coaching team has been put together headed up by Mike Broughton a world renowned weather expert and tactician who among other projects is supporting Dee Caffari with her Vendee Globe campaign. Russ Clark has been coaching his wife Penny who has just been selected for the Olympics and Graham Sunderland is author of the 'Winning' series of Solent race guides. Barry Dunning has worked for some time with LCSC and is a coaching veteran from many international campaigns.

Having been selected Jaguar will follow a training plan and work with other teams under the RYA guidance to maintain and improve performance before July.

We will keep the club informed of progress and hope to generate some wider PR for LCSC.

All those starting to yacht race now should be looking ahead to the next RORC Commodores Cup in 2010 - most of the current Jaguar squad only started racing seriously in the last 3 years and gained most of their time on the water and race training through LCSC.

Squad:

Adrian Lower - Owner and skipper - helm/main
John Kewley - helm/main
Andy Oliver - trim 1
Neil Palmer - trim 2
Susie Carratu - pit
Fred Lower - mast
Ashley Bower - foredeck
Mark Emerson - nav/tactics
Tom Partridge - mast/foredeck
Barry Leake - trim
Ben Carratu - trim
Louise Kewley - pit/trim
Phil Morgan - foredeck
Nick Sharpe - trim/foredeck

Pro and Coaching team:

Mike Broughton
Russ Clark
Graham Sunderland
Barry Dunning