Saturday August 6 saw the first race of the Rye Harbour Sailing Club’s Pocket Cruiser series. Six boats lined up for the start, Helena Ann, Mallard, Limbo Girl, Mystic Sky, Lady Jane and Close Encounters.
The wind had been slowly increasing as the boats came down river towards the start off the harbour entrance and, as so often with an onshore wind in the Bay, a steep choppy sea was developing. Mallard and Helena Ann both made a reasonable start as did Mystic Sky as the fleet headed off to the first mark of the course, off Winchelsea Beach.
A hard beat into the freshening breeze saw Mallard closely followed by Helena Ann take the lead. Surprisingly, Limbo Girl, by far the smallest boat racing, looked to be keeping up for a while but the larger, more powerful boats soon left her behind. Rounding the mark, with Mallard still just ahead of Helena Ann and heading south for the Fairway buoy, Mallard decided to set her symmetric sail in place of her genoa. It seemed to do her little good, however as, by the time the Fairway buoy had been rounded and a run down to the next mark off Camber was under way, Helena Ann had drawn ahead and led the way back to the start line and the beginning of what was, effectively, a second lap.
The race now developed into a battle between the two leading boats, with slight differences in tactics resulting in both finally crossing the finish line on different tacks in what, at first sight, appeared to be a dead heat but, as the official timing from the OOD (officer of the day) boat showed, Mallard had just made it by 20 seconds. However, the joker in the pack turned out to be Mystic Sky. A little smaller than the two lead boats, but well sailed, she had been tracking them for most of the race and finished just about a minute behind Helena Ann but on corrected time (after allowing for her handicap) she achieved a time of 1:09:58 just one minute better than either of the leading two and took the win.
The following day saw the second race in the series and the boats were greeted with an overcast sky and a wind never less than 20 knots and rising, with gusts reaching 30 knots at times. Only three boats braved the conditions: Mallard, Helena Ann and Mystic Sky. The first leg, as before, ran west towards Winchelsea Beach and into the wind. Mallard got away to a good start and Helena Ann (with your correspondent on board) and Mystic Sky following.
Despite taking a few rolls in the genoa (effectively, reefing it) Helena Ann crashed and thrashed her way towards the windward mark, spray jetting back into the cockpit and water, inches deep, sweeping across the deck. The crew doing their best on the winches to keep the sails in trim while owner and skipper, Hugh Redman fought the wheel to keep on course. Mallard, with her own skipper, Howard Bates, clearly not finding it easy, nevertheless continued to lead the way.
The reach up to the second mark was only marginally less wild, with the quartering sea threatening to cause the boat to broach (fly up into the wind, often at an extreme angle of heel and out of control for a few seconds), but the run down to Camber gave a short period of respite and then it all had to be done again. The wind was just as strong, water and spray pouring over side decks and cabin top, muscles aching with the effort of grinding in bar taught genoa sheets on the winches.
Finally the finish line was crossed – or was it? Normally a horn would sound, but on the occasion the OOD (today it was the turn of Lady Jane and her owner) there was no horn, or maybe the sound was blown away in the wind. Nevertheless the time was taken and the final result was Mallard 1:22:38, Helena Ann 1:24:52 and Mystic Sky, just too far back for her handicap to help her, 1:29:01
Photo: John Minter