A slightly diminished fleet of two boats made for the 10:30 start of the Harwich Trophy Race on Saturday, with the forecast of a beat home with the wind against the tide on Sunday not looking appealing to some.

With a fresh westerly breeze and some strong squalls, both participants opted for white sails only (or black in the case of Lucy Lee). A closely contested downwind start put Coco slightly ahead and so the positioning stayed for the remainder of the race.

Lucy Lee opted for the south bank and Coco the north, with a roughly three minute gap between the two on approaching the Wallet spitway. After a predictably rough crossing, Lucy Lee didn’t allow the gap to widen on the final leg to Harwich, finishing just under four minutes after Coco, five minutes ahead on corrected.

Phil and Pauline Shanahan cruised down from their current base at Ipswich in ‘Capella’, their Corvette 320 motor cruiser to join for a meal at the Bristol Arms. Steve Barham arrived for the meal by road, along with the trophy (dating back to 1906) which was then presented by Phil to Ian Keam-George of Lucy Lee.

Thanks go to both George Winder for operating the committee boat to start the race and Ian Keam-George for organising the race and meal.

Results

1st “Lucy Lee’ -Hanse 315 – Ian and Janice Keam-George
YTC 982
Clapsed time: 3hr 32min 10sec.
Corrected time: 3:36:03

2nd Coco’ – Sun Odysey 33i – Paul Van Damme, David & Jack Page
YTC 943
Elapsed time: 3hr 28min 33sec.
Corrected time: 3:41:09

Jack Page
6th July 2023