38th Bloody Mary at Queen Mary Sailing Club

The sailboats.co.uk Bloody Mary Pursuit Race was run for the 38th time this weekend at Queen Mary Sailing Club. This was also the second leg of the SailJuice Global Warm-Up series. For the first time in several years, the race took place in decent conditions with a good breeze and double digit temperatures following six weeks of freezing cold. This attracted 238 entries in 60 classes from 107 clubs from as far afield as Aberdeen.

First off were the Toppers in a force 4-5 breeze at which point the foiling Moths (who were to go off last) were looking favourites to win. After 40 minutes, the breeze had dropped to a Force 3 and a Laser 4.7 took the lead. 20 minutes later a Graduate helmed by Steve Cockerill overhauled them and held off a 3000 and two National 12s for over an hour. With 20 minutes to go an International 14 sailed by Roger Gilbert and Ben McGrane took the lead and extended it until the end of the race. Second to finish was Chips Howarth and Vyv Townend in a Fireball and close behind them was Daniel Hollands and Andrew Thompson in the 3000.

Winner of the Ladies Helm was Katie Russell in a Laser Radial. The Hyde Sails Foilers Trophy went to Mike Cooke in an International Moth. The first Queen Mary Helm and first junior was Callum Ellis in a 29er with his crew Will Harris. Winner of the Grand Master prize was Bob Yates from Burghfield in a Blaze. There were 20 class prizes (for those fleets of 6 or more).

Prize winners walked away with a bag of goodies including vodka juice and tomato juice, watches from Nautica and free subscriptions to sailjuice.com.

The winners thanked the volunteers and staff of the Club who worked so hard to make the whole event from arrival through launching to racing such a success.

Overall Results: