Eight Flying Fifteens gathered at the Burnham Yacht Harbour for the RCYC Open meeting on the 19th/21st September. The visiting boats must have thought they had overshot the destination and ended up on the Costa del Sol such was the late summer conditions that greeted them ( 26 degrees and an F4 southerly ), much was the excitement for a weekend of champagne sailing on the Crouch and Roach.

Saturday dawned with a promise of rising SW winds, and bacon baps and coffee at the harbour pre sailing. All arrived as hoped. The fleet was set a series of four river navigation courses, sailing from the harbour entrance all the way upstream to Short Pole Reach. The visitors were reminded of the river tidal flows in the opening race as most headed midstream, whilst the wary sorted out the gribbling routes on either bank. Early leaders were Ian Cadwallader and Bill Chard (4069) and Justin Waples and Jackie McKellar (4033). Justin and Jackie ended day one with three firsts out of four races… was it local knowledge or the set of Impact Marine sails they were trialling?

After a rock n roll Saturday night when the worst of the 40 knot winds had blown through and the unwary had navigated BoC High Street, always a challenge when the sponsor had opened an ‘Imperial’ sized bottle for the pre-dinner drinkees at the Club, Sunday brought a chill northerly but still bright skies and a sense of excitement; we were to be set the challenge of  “The Roach”.   A series of three windward/leeward courses was on the menu. The tide was on the flood and the priority was to get upwind without succumbing to the “Roach Ripper”. The fleet wisely chose to navigate more gribbling routes up the East bank of the water, and then make the judgement call of when to dash across the incoming tide to the windward mark and its accompanying spreader mark.  Eventually the fleet worked out the best route around these marks, but for some it took a fwq practice attempts (the less said about race 5 for the fleet the better)!!  A great morning session was topped off with a windward/leeward and chase to the harbour course. Justin and Jackie (4033) led this from start to finish and claimed the laurels for the weekend. Second overall was Ian and Bill (4069) and third place was taken by Adrian Tattersall and John (Dickens) Mathie (4130). No discards were allowed, which made for a testing event as every race had to count.

It was a great event, sponsored by Waples Wines and exceptionally well run by the RCYC race team. The club gave the visitors a great welcome, and demonstrated again why it’s such a positively challenging place to sail.

Author Adrian Tattersall

ff 4130