Autumn Series 2012 Pursuit Races 2 and 3

The day dawned beautifully with a light southerly breeze and we got Ember out to the start area early as I was acting as Race Officer due to the unavoidable absence of just about all of the Sailing Committee. We found Wil Pretty with his new Commanche catamaran, Little Big B, resting on the moorings having sailed overnight all the way from Eastbourne. Not surprisingly he declined our not very serious invitation to race that morning. Stephen Bush turned out in his Pegasus Summer Wine with Graham Pugh, Graham Hemington in Sonata Sunrise with Christopher Stevens, Martin and Annie Smith in GK 29 Sisu together with their blue-water sailing friends, Steve and Tess, and Celia and myself in Ember with Roly Spurgeon helming.

The first race, Autumn Series 2, was down river on the ebb, round South Kent Buoy and as far back up river as possible before the 2 hour time limit expired. Summer Wine started just 35 seconds after the nominal start time and was a worryingly long way ahead before we started about 11 minutes later. Sisu followed about 3 minutes after that and finally Sunrise a very challenging nearly 22 minutes after the nominal start time of 10:00. Sunrise’s punishing handicap is a reflection of Graham and Christopher’s consistent high standard of sailing. Sisu overtook Ember somewhere around Stangate Spit and stayed ahead until the finish by a couple of hundred yards or so. Sunrise came down under spinnaker, but Ember was round South Kent ahead of them with only about ten minutes of racing left to go. It then got very interesting as we each tried to decide the best way to avoid the worst of the remnants of the ebb tide whilst making progress back up the river. Opinions varied about the relative positions of Sunrise and Ember at the finish so we agreed to call it a tie. Summer Wine was not far away at the finish, proving once again that Wil Pretty’s handicapping is very accurate. In Race 1, for example, the whole fleet occupied about the space of a football pitch at the end of two hours racing.

Courtesy of Sisu’s anchor we all rafted up in Stangate for lunch and prepared for the return race, Autumn Series 3, which was basically the reverse of the earlier one, but now nearly all to windward. The wind had started to increase as forecast and Sunrise changed her headsail for a smaller genoa during the break. All started OK, but Summer Wine retired shortly after her start. Sisu caught Ember again somewhere near Bee Ness having reefed her genoa en route. She then really got going in the increasing wind and was several hundreds of yards ahead of us at the finish. We did not reef Ember and suffered for it. I was told that the Coastguard issued a Strong Wind Warning during the afternoon, but I didn’t pick it up. It was certainly very boisterous. Sunrise struggled in the conditions but finished safely in third position.

There are three more Races left in the series, so it remains wide open.

Please come and join us.

Martin Richards

Date Published 16th Sep 2012