Draycote Water Brass Monkey Pursuit Race
by Jeremy Atkins 26 Dec 2022 11:42 PST
26 December 2022
Second placed Mike Deane and Paul Disney in their Fireball during the Draycote Water Brass Monkey Pursuit Race © Mark Dunkley
With the online forecasters predicting gale force winds all week, with force 11 gusts on some days, the Monday pursuit race was held in glorious sunshine and a reasonable breeze with some gusts coming through, but ones that most of the fleet could cope with.
First off were an impressive group of Youth & Junior sailors in their Toppers, some competing in their first pursuit race. Among them, Katt Gunn took an early lead and maintained it for over 90 of the 100 minutes. Behind her it looked like it might be a battle of the Topper World Champions. Current World Champion Joe Roe, now in an ILCA 6, against 2007 Topper World Champion Mike Wood in an Aero 5.
Joe battled hard all the way round with fellow ILCA 6 sailor, Freddie Sunderland, but their rivalry got the better of them as they (just) missed out a mark of the course while concentrating too hard on each other. Nevertheless, they continued passing the boats ahead and Freddie moved into the ‘lead’ shortly before the finish and would have won if his navigation hadn’t let him down.
Mike Wood was also coming up fast, but he was caught out by one of the gusts and took a swim. Did that give an opportunity for the rapidly approaching Fireball of Mike Deane and Paul Disney? Mike recovered quick enough to claim his first Draycote pursuit race for 2 years. Sadly, it will also be his last for 2 years as the RAF have posted him to Cyprus for that time. It should give enough time for Freddie and Joe to practise their navigation!
Third overall, and first Youth & Juniors, were Imogen Green and Felicity Angell in their Feva, who deservedly won all the chocolates!
With none of the podium-placed in this race having got on the podium before in the series, the Club Championships Trophy (for the series) is very open. Greg Irish, despite not attending this race, retains his lead, and Will Sunderland, who also spent the day on dry land, is still second. But brother George moves up to third, demoting Steve Irish and Norman Byrd in their 505 as Norman was confined to barracks.
So it is all down to the final, New Year’s Day Pursuit Race (datum 1.30pm), to which visiting sailors are very welcome. However, keep an eye on the forecast – at the time of writing it is predicting force 7 average with gusts of force 9 – any cancellation will be posted on the Club website that morning.