The Battle of the Classes 2013 24 Sep 2013
“What a day!” That was Edwin Buckley’s comment as he looked back over the efforts made to run this event at the PSP Southampton Boat Show on Sunday 22nd September. Everything was in place after an early briefing at 07:30 with the Southampton Water Sports Centre Staff on Sunday 22nd September – the registration team, the RIBS, the inflated buoys with trackers and all the ground tackle added. The competitors were all anxious to get going but there was no wind… Edwin made the decision to abandon the race at 12:30 and return with the fleet back to SWAC.
Edwin would like to thank:-Annie Reid, Pat Buckley, Mandy Wade, Gerrie Gray, Katie Cole, Catherine Massey, Coral Tranter, Peter Marchant, Kim Allen, Mark Wade, Ian Gray, Roger Mant, Bob Tranter and Michael Massey.
Mark Jardine from Yachts & Yachting was standing by to write an exciting account of the racing but instead, filed this for us…
Unfortunately, there was no wind whatsoever on Southampton Water and the view from the PSP Southampton Boat Show marina was of a flat calm.
Despite the predications giving a no-wind forecast, an impressive number of the entered teams still turned up and went out on the water to drift, paddle and rock their boats towards the start area. Edwin Buckley’s Royal Corinthian YC race team waited patiently for the wind, but it became clear that nothing was on the horizon and the abandonment flags were raised.
The Battle of the Classes couldn’t take place without a number of supporters; the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, Southampton Water Activities Centre (SWAC), the PSP Southampton Boat Show, British Sailing, SailRacer and YachtsandYachting.com.
The revival of the Battle of the Classes, after the London Boat Show based event had to be cancelled due to unavailability of launch facilities, has been very positively received and the aim is to run the event at the PSP Southampton Boat Show in 2014.
The SWAC team launched the fleet smoothly and Edwin and his team had everything in place to run a great showcase race in front of the boat show crowds. SailRacer tracking devices were on every boat and the racing marks.
Finally, many thanks indeed to all those competitors who made the effort to get out on the water to support the event. We look forward to seeing you all in 2014 where we hope for better wind conditions.