Ramsgate Week 2025 Overall
by Peter Jackson 28 Jul 02:35 NZST
20-25 July 2025
QE2 Cup, Gold Cup & IRC East Coast Championships on Thursday & Friday
After the fun start to Ramsgate Week the slightly more serious business of the major trophies and IRC East Coast Championships continued in a wide range of weather conditions. Sponsored by North Sails, two £500 vouchers were on offer for sails and clothing. The cruiser class used the club line on Thursday while the rest did two windward-leewards from the Committee boat, and PRO Peter Schofield, aggregated for the only trophy presented by our late Queen for yacht racing, the Queen Elizabeth II Cup.
Race 1, in a force 4, was quite simple, won overall by the Class 2 X362 of John Barratt & Paul Woodward Stilletto with Mike Relling aboard setting up a new J2. The Thomas families class 2 X99 Xpedite just beat the Class 1 winner Pronavia 42 Assassin of Peter & Alex Jackson into 2nd overall. In race 2 the latter two and Sidewinder were OCS, identified late so put out of the picture. Xpedite led the fleet from Peter Pearson et al's HOD 35 Buccaneer. Then the wind got up, the heavens opened and a number of boats had rig & sail problems. Assassin came through for line honours and Stiletto recovered to 3rd overall but the early leaders took the top 2 places. Robin Page's Corby 33 Imposter was 2nd in class 1 to Assassin with a 3rd & 1st but Xpedite took both Class 2 and the QE2 Cup overall scoring 2nd & 1st.
In Classes 4-5 The Dehler 34 Zephyros of Andrew French et al also scored 2 & 1 to take the aggregate win by virtue of winning the 2nd race, over Mike & Jo Brand's X40 Fox out of the Box with 1 & 2 ahead of the 2nd Dehler 34 Robin Impey's Flyer. Gary Walters J97 Jura was off the poidium for once and level on 10 points with Bruce James Long's MG 38 Pinocchio Ahead of Nick Moulton's Sunfast 3200 Dabtoe, 3rd in race 2 on 11, equal with David Preston's First Class 8 Luna.
The Class 7 inshore fleet did a single race which finally saw local hero's John & Michelle Stoneley's Sun Odyssey 37 Pippy take a win. Jean Marc Devos's Feeling 850 Carpe Diem just held off the Lucas - Nicholson E boat Zigge by 9 seconds for 2nd with the same gap to Bernard Sealy's Sigma 38 Torbellin.
Ramsgate Corporation Gold Cup
Always sailed on the last day, the Gold Cup race, usually a Coastal Course, was set mostly in the confines of Sandwich Bay, off the Royal St Georges Open gold course, and Pegwell Bay at the mouth of the Sandwiches River Stour. Light and dropping winds were forecast so a multi loop course was used, in benign flat water blue skies and sunshine.
Xpedite's helm Mark Thomas had left for the Fastnet start so his dinghy sailor mother Debbie helmed, and was early at the port pin with Stiletto. Both spun back but fouled Assassin, delaying all three. Xpedite did her turns but Stiletto was DSQ. Buccaneer, at the boat end, hit a right hand shift and led up the 1st beat. The Melges 24 Lock Stock was also away clear but on the soft left.
Assassin recovered and passed Buccaneer for the lead after a mile and Lock Stock also closed the gap. Assassin steered by 5 times Gold Cup winner Peter Jackson pulled away inexorably as Sidewinder, Imposter and Lock Stock all passed the HOD35 to lead the chase. The West Cliffs of Ramsgate gave a perfect viewing gallery for the last few legs up and down to the finish at Kent Decking near the harbour. The wind didn't reduce as the forecast had suggested and the tide had built for the last leg helping the smaller boats home. Assassin couldn't quite hold her time on Lock Stock, 17 minutes back, so Simon Northrop took the Gold Cup by a minute. Buccaneer was only another minute back in 3rd behind Assassin. Flying Pig, also late starting due to a kite problem recovered to correct less than half a minute further back in 5th.
Classes 4-5 were led round by Mike & Jo Brand's X40 Fox out of the Box but with the MG38 Pinocchio close on their tail and building a 10 minute lead for a comfortable corrected time win. Jura also came back into the picture but couldn't get close to the MG38, correcting 4 minutes back, The two Dehler 34's were again inseparable. Both rated 0.920 and Zephyros again beat Flyer but only by 1 second, four minutes ahead of Dabtoe and the X40.
Class 7, without spinnakers, did a different course which unfortunately took in Gull Stream buoys, rounding against the strongest tide of the week. Most of the fleet struggled and only 3 boats made it round, which didn't include the early class front runner Zigge. Torbellin again won, with ex Albacore Champion Dave Sinnock, now in his 80's, on on the crew. There was then a large gap to Carpe Diem, then a larger one to Pippy in 3rd. The win gave Bernard Sealey's Sigma 38 the overall class win with 7 points from Zigge and leading foreign visitor Carpe Diem equal on 8 ahead of Pippy.
Assassin won Class 1 but overall 1st for the week and also Class 2 winner was Xpedite, with Stiletto taking Class 2 and 1st overall in the North Sails Sponsored East Coast IRC Championship. Jura won the cruiser class with Fox out of the Box 2nd and the leading Dehler 34 Zephyros 3rd.
Find out more at www.ramsgateweek.com