RCOD Weekend Racing and CAUDLE CUP

The RCOD Class had a good weekend’s racing 19 and 20 August – at last since late June for some- after what seemed like weeks of lost racing due to unseasonable windy weather. On Saturday 5 boats raced in the summer series in still quite breezy conditions. The main beat was Holiwell to Wallaseaness just inside the Roach on the new ebb. Cormorant got ahead after the first leg of the race and defended the lead with ease. There were more place changes in the following fleet with Corinna sneaking a second during the final fetch. Very good racing with all boats reefed and by agreement not using spinnakers.

On Sunday the Class was defending the Caudle Cup. This is a 2×4 boat team racing competition between the RCOD fleet and the Royal Burnham OD fleet. Although quite different in appearance and rig both 1930’s designed and built club one designs coincidentally have similar upwind and downwind performance ratings. However to avoid any suspicion of performance bias the teams swop boats so that each team races two of each class. Helms are not permitted to sail their own boat. Helms in the RC team were Justin Waples, Sue Law, Martin Makey and Ian Gray (representing PRO Edwin’s RCOD).

Conditions for the team racing were nearly ideal – around 9-12 knots south westerly but quite shifty on a flooding spring tide. Our race officer Edwin Buckley on Phoebe found it quite a challenge to set the perfect beat but the racing conditions were the same for all. In any event team racing has its own challenges and excitement. The RC manged to win the first flight helped by a protest call which resulted in the RB incurring penalty points. The second flight was easily won by the RB- the RC found the start challenging! The third and final flight was a closely fought race but eventually won by the RB one point ahead.

The teams retired to the sunny balcony of the RC for a very pleasant afternoon with sandwiches and very good sausage rolls hosted by the RCOD class. Steve Herring (RBOD Red Jacket) was presented the Cup by our Commodore Phil and generously filled it with a fine Dark and Stormy to toast both fleets.

Many thanks to Team Phoebe and the mark layers and those who lent their boats.

Martin Makey – Class Captain