The Marco Polo held on Saturday had 16 entries quite a mix for boats too from Lasers, Merlin, RCOD, Dragons, 707s both white sailed and with spinnakers, Flying fifteen, Squibs, Osprey and a Blaze

Mark Flynn had very kindly offered to be the Race Officer for the event with Tammy in assistance.  The Westerly (with a hint of north) breeze enabled a Club line start to be ideal, the course was up river and then back through the Club line between No. 5 and West Quay until the due time, finishing on the Club line.

What a Pursuit race it turned out to be, the knack is to remember that you’re not racing any boat, just the Clock, there were numerous decisions to be made that would have been different in fleet racing for sure. I was aware of at least 6 boats that could all have had a fabulous chance of winning if something hadn’t gone to plan, a mainsail coming down, a gybe that didn’t go well that ended in a capsize, another boat that capsized that went into a turtle, and one missed a tack literally seconds before the finishing line while leading.  It’s a hard race, just ask the laser sailors who all mentioned total fatigue after racing for 100 mins in a solid 20 knots!!

The Race Box were beginning to write down numbers about 3 mins out but paused as 6 boats began converging on the line, literally 10 secs separated them at the finish.  The bar was full of what ifs at the end.  Maybe next year we have two Pursuit races and the average of the two will win the Marco Polo Trophy, it really was a fantastic Club sailing event and thank you to Mark Flynn and his team for working out all the different timings required.

The winner by a whisker was a Squib helmed by Micky Wright and crewed by Alex Porteous, who was able to collect the Trophy at the Laying Up Supper/celebration of the season that evening.

The Laying Up Supper was a lovely evening, and while racing hasn’t finished for all, it’s a good way to mark the season for many.  The one Cup that was presented is in some ways one of the best of Club trophies, as it rewards participation, it’s the ‘Danny Clowes’ Trophy and it was presented to be given for the most number of races started.     If it was ‘days on the river’ it might be a cruising boat every time!  But it’s in the same spirit of the Trophy.  There were thirteen people with 18 or more days, the joint winners this year were Ian Gray and Justin Waples, well done to them both.