COGS End Of Season Prize Giving
The Cornwall Offshore Group Series (COGS) held their annual prize giving at the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club last Saturday night. This was the 7th annual awards event for COGS and a bit like the Oyster Festival is steadily growing in popularity with local sailors and sailing clubs.
The existing 7 member clubs Fowey Gallants, Helford, Mylor, Penzance, St Mawes, Royal Fowey and Royal Cornwall were joined by Saltash Sailing Club this year and some 50 yachts competed in the 6-race 2007 programme.
Offshore racing I suspect will always take a back seat as an option in comparison to simple local racing around a set course.
The time constraints of first sailing to the race start and then sailing back from the race finish means that offshore racing is only going to have limited appeal.
Nevertheless given the attractiveness of the harbour destinations along our coast I feel more and more local sailors will at least compete in 1 or 2 COGS events per season.
The racing is competitive with an IRC and PY class in each event together with a two-crew class option for those who may prefer to sail short handed or as a couple.
This year regular competitor Tony Stathem from Helford sailing Jacobi his J109 was dominant in the IRC class with another stalwart Damien Bloor and Artful finishing as runners up.
In the PY class new comer Culum Matheson sailing Solent Dolphin took the silverware from Martin Leech and Incite. The two-handed class was won by Noon Hi skippered by Jack Plenty from Silver Harmony and Lyulph Hesling.
Jacobi was also declared the overall Top Yacht of the series to underline Tony and his crew’s achievements this year and a fitting way to mark the end Tony’s involvement with the COGS Committee after 7 years at “the coal faceâ€.
Helford’s Commodore Rob Hewett presided over the prize giving even though the event was hosted by the Royal Cornwall and that to me confirms the friendliness and informality, which makes COGS well worth supporting in 2008.
It is a unique opportunity to race and socialize with members of sailing clubs from Plymouth to Penzance and at the same time fine-tune boat handling and navigational skills in competition.
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