IAN LE MAITRE’S Alexa produced a superb class win at Skandia Cowes Week. Le Maitre raced within the IRC Handicap class eight and his boat placed first overall among the Sigma 33s, not once finishing outside the top three in the six completed races.
The GYC stalwart regards the triumph as the best of his long competitive racing career.
‘It was a great week. It’s a fantastic carnival week with over a thousand yachts racing,’ he said on his return.
Among his seven-strong crew was his 23-year-old son, Matthew.
‘This was the ninth [Cowes Week] I’ve done with Alexa and the best we had done before was third overall.’
But this time he produced two third-place finishes, three seconds and one victory to top the section by one point from Workout.
‘We won the Sigma 33s - although the Cowes Week website does not reflect it.
‘The Friday race was abandoned through a lack of wind and the abandonment counted as the discard [result] for everyone,’ the skipper added.
Le Maitre said he had travelled to the Isle of Wight event confident of success.
‘We are always hopeful of being in the top bracket.
‘We had a new set of sails and were determined to do well. Conditions were light all week making for light or medium air racing.’
Alexa’s solitary mishap of the week came in the third race.
‘We were nearing the finish of the Monday race and Alexa was struck on the stern by another yacht that tacked across and failed to give way.
‘The port pushpit suffered damage but it was insufficient to prevent us finishing and competing for the rest of the week.’
All but one of the Alexa crew were islanders, the odd one out being a university friend of Matthew.
The other islanders were John Watkin, Des Francis, Dave Critchlow and Mark de Garis.
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