Bembridge Keelboats Mid July Racing

After a very successful few days at Cowes racing in Cowes Classic week, and congratulations to Mark Grzegorczyk in No 9 who won overall, the One-Designs had a day off on Saturday to charge batteries!

Although six or seven Redwings left the harbour on Friday evening in the hopes of a race for the 'Friday Night Challenge', the absence of a sailable breeze put paid to that and so boats were towed to their moorings at Under Tyne.

Eleven Redwings (the largest fleet so far this season) had three challenging races in almost perfect conditions on Saturday afternoon. The challenging part was simply that the breeze varied in strength (5 to 12 knots) and direction (S to SW) as the afternoon developed. The first race had Janson as the pin, Undertyne (E) as the windward mark and a laid inflatable as the leeward mark (twice round finishing at Janson). Team Downer in Enigma over cooked it and lost a bit of time extracting themselves and returning back to the line.

With the fleet splitting tacks, it was Paroquet, helmed by Class Captain Rory Morrison who lead the fleet round the two lap course. Initially with Redwing, helmed by Olav Cole, Tara, helmed by Mike Toogood and Ibis, helmed by Tom Scott, as the chasing group, however as the race unfolded, Enigma moved into second place and was only 5 seconds behind Paroquet at the finish. Ibis was third and Tara was fourth.

With Ibis returning to the harbour, and Redwing heading off to the Under Tyne moorings, the remaining nine boats made a clean start to the second race with Undertyne still as the windward mark; they then had a run to Ruthven before tacking to Fitzwilliam, a run/reach to the inflatable leeward mark and a final beat back to the line.

Enigma, helmed by Alex Downer, was lead boat throughout the race with Paroquet, Tara, Harlequin, helmed by Alastair Spreare-Cole and Lady Leatitia helmed by Billy Clegg battling it out for second and third. In the event, there was less than a second separating Enigma and Paroquet as the latter closed the gap on the final beat. Harlequin was third and Lady Laetitia was fourth.

With Gannet, helmed by Bella Janson and Lady Laetitia returning to the moorings, and after a short postponement while the Committee boat re-set the line after the breeze backed to the SW, the remaining seven boats made another clean start to the third and final race of the day.

Enigma, helmed by Mark Downer, was again the front runner with Paroquet never far away. However having been a boat length behind round the last mark of the course (Fitzwilliam), it was Paroquet who crossed the finish line at Undertyne thirty seconds ahead of Enigma. Tara was third and Redwitch, helmed by Henry Thorpe was fourth.

Sunday proved to be another lovely sunny afternoon with a F2-3 SE/S breeze. The first of the two Redwing races saw nine starters, seven of which were helmed by instructors. As on the previous day, the start line was based on Janson with Tara as the windward mark and Derrick as the leeward mark. To keep them clear of the line on the way to Derrick they had to pass Janson to port. Overall it was an impressive start and although Lady Laetitia, helmed by Alice Clegg, was OCS, she was close to the Committee boat so it did not take long to circle back.

Indeed half way through the race, she had moved up into second behind Enigma, helmed by Rupert Cunningham-Day. With split tacks on each beat, there was little to separate the top three; indeed at the finish there was only two seconds between first (Harlequin, helmed by Hawkie Findlater), second (Enigma) and third (Lady Laetitia). Well done to all; it was great to see the quality of the helming.

After some crew changes, the second race used a similar course but with the finish at Garland. Enigma, now helmed by Mark Downer lead from the start.

As in the previous race the fleet split tacks but there was all to play for as they rounded Janson on the way to Derrick. The main decision after Derrick was whether to go inside or outside St Helens Fort on the way to the finish.

Enigma chose well and just managed to keep a boat length or two ahead of Redwitch who had gone inside the fort and Paroquet who had gone outside. Indeed these two boats were so close that they were scored as a tie. Redwing, helmed by Olav Cole had also gone inside the fort and picked up fourth. On the closest of count backs and excluding the instructor race, this meant that team Downer won the Svalan Quiache.

Sadly there were only four One-Designs which meant that there were not enough boats for the second race to be helmed by the same instructors who had helmed the first Redwing race. Although No 7 helmed by Sarah Marshall and No 9 helmed by Penny Stanley made good starts, No 4 helmed single handed by John Suffield and No 3 helmed by Stephan Ludwig were well off the line!

With a slightly shorter course so as to match up finish times, and notwithstanding that No 9 flew her spinnaker on the runs, No 7 lead for most of the race only to be overtaken by No 3 who then went on to cross the down wind finish line inches ahead of No 9.

After a better start and with their leeward mark as Britten rather than Derrick, the four boats were pretty close for most of the race, however John in No 4 got the break when he went inside the Fort on the final leg to Garland and finished over a minute ahead of Sarah in No 7 and Mark Grzegorczyk helming No 9.

Morning racing next weekend and then the following week we go into daily racing until the last week in August.

Bembridge Redwing and One-Design 14 July racing - photo © Mike Samuelson