BECAUSE of the late departure of a visiting cruise liner, there was a delay in starting racing at the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club on Friday.

The competitors manoeuvred around the committee boat anchored near the eastern shore half a kilometre north of St Mawes Castle. Above them were light high altitude cirrus clouds but carried by the westerly breeze were dark rain threatening clouds which promised a change in the weather.

From the north-south line, five multihulls boats came over towards the docks but the leading three tacked onto port leaving the last well behind.

When the IRC One fleet started Per Elisa quickly came to the front, a position they held all the way to the finish. Robbie Tregear, the skipper, said after the race the start line straddled the deep water channel and a part of the shallow bank, so he chose this end to start where the ebbing tidal stream was weakest.

He looked forward to the town searching out the lowest clouds under which the wind accelerated so he sailed under them to gain maximum power. The secret of victory is to have a detailed chart, a tide table and a resident meteorologist/tactician as well as an experienced crew and helm.

Vindscreen Viper and Daring had tacked onto port soon after crossing the start line and then after a few hundred metres they tacked again onto starboard parallel to the leaders Per Elisa Jackdaw and Orijin.

When the leaders tacked onto port to travel north they crossed well ahead of the other two who were held back by the foul tide in the deep water.

In IRC Two, Miss Whiplash got away from the start and finished nearly a minute in front of the rest.

Excelle who lead Macavity, Encore, Tresillian, Demolition and the large Hero had a close tussle all round course, with the first three of the group finishing within twenty seconds of each other and the second three finishing within half a minute.

They clearly had very competitive racing in ideal conditions but two or three of the crews felt that the courses were good but too short and some questioned the use of East Narrows buo,y which was thought to be no longer used.

After an enforced late start, it must be difficult for the OOD to set long courses because he wants all the fleet home before dark.

In U class, Jemelda did well in conditions not suited to quite such a heavy cruiser but they finished three minutes clear of Cold FFeet, who was half a minute ahead of Moonlighter who was two minutes in front of Nitro.

Midnight Cocktail helmed by Abbi Cook did not perform as well as usual because they were over two minutes behind the other Flying Fifteen.

Daisy lead the Sunbeam fleet who quickly formed a line astern each one chasing the one in front all the way round.

IRC One: 1st Per Elisa - R Tregear, 2nd Daring - D & C Bloor, 3rd Jackdaw - T Cook.

IRC Two: 1st Excelle - J Fox & T Claridge, 2nd Macavity - J Hicks, 3rd Encore - D Cunliffe.

U class: 1st Jemelda - J Hopkins & D Muirhead, 2nd Cold FFeet - N Woodley, 3rd Moonlighter - P Collins.

V class: 1st Daisy - S Carter. 2nd Verity - D Carne, 3rd Pixy - L Hesling.