Brass Monkey 7 at Liverpool YC

by Richard Campbell on 12 Mar 2012 The Brass Monkey 7 got underway at Liverpool Yacht Club amid a forecast of light winds and a very big tide that perhaps contributed to the cautious turnout of eight yachts in the lock in the morning time.

Once out on the river, the strength of the tide was apparent with some struggling to make way for the start. With the sequence underway Race Control was dismayed to see the fleet moving swiftly, but prematurely, stern first over the line. After a general recall and a restart the fleet did get away with spinnakers up, Class 1 charging down river to G3 and then across to E2. Class 2 got away with spinnakers cutting cross river to nip round Dingle before the long run to G9 but only after Stuart Lofthouse’s Skukusa had lifted her anchor on the line, letting Quattro get away.

The wind freshened once the fleet were in the wider part of the river and a gap opened up across the Class 1 flight with Richard Booth’s Another Nod’s appreciably ahead, going well. In Class 2, Stephen Harrison’s Quattro, having started well, was hotly pursued by Skukusa who closed the gap with some tactical thinking in the tide. John Myerscough’s Quilla struggled with engine problems in the restart and retired after a brave attempt to make good.

Line honours in Class 1 went to Another Nod’s three minutes in front of Mighty Max and Quattro took honours for Class 2. On corrected time Another Nod’s kept first place for Class 1, 85 seconds ahead of Easy Tiger and Quattro held off Skukusa for first place with a gap whittled away to 70 seconds.

A dry day on the river in challenging conditions which made for another very enjoyable race.

BRASS MONKEY 7				Class      Position
Boat	hours	mins	secs		elapsed time	TCF	Adj time
Class 1
COURSE	ST. G3/E2/G9/G7/G9/G7/E4 FINISH
1	Another Nods	1	29	52	5392	1.071	5,775	1
1	Easy Tiger	1	39	3	5943	0.986	5,860	2
1	Daydream Believer	1	38	1	5881	0.997	5,863	3
1	Mighty Max	1	32	54	5574	1.072	5,975	4
1	Diva	1	41	13	6073	1.071	6,504	5
Class 2
COURSE	ST.DG/G9/G7/G9/G7/E2 FINISH
2	Quattro	1	34	54	5694	0.915	5,210	1
2	Skukusa	1	40	13	6013	0.882	5,303	2
2	Quilla	0	0.892	0	DSF