Last weekend, May 7 and 8 saw races 3 and 4 of the Rye Harbour Sailing Club’s Spring Series for cruisers.
Saturday produced five boats, Helena Ann, Mallard, Mystic Sky, Lady Jane and Limbo Girl lining up for the start in very light winds. Helena Ann made a perfect start, crossing the line as the hooter went and on the beat up to the windward mark slowly started to pull ahead of the rest of the fleet. Both Mystic Sky and Mallard – no slouches, themselves, and with competitive crews – did their best to push on but, surprisingly, neither could quite catch the bigger, but much heavier, boat.
Approaching the first mark it became apparent that the full triangular course was not feasible, with the wind starting to die away, and the instruction came from the OOD (Officer of the Day, and therefore, race controller) to omit the second leg and take a reciprocal course to leg 1, returning directly to the start/finish line.
It was a struggle for everyone; spinnakers of various types, shapes and some with eye-dazzling colours (of the sort normally only seen on the ties of old boys from the more exclusive public schools), were tried, abandoned and tried again as the wind became ever more fitful. The fleet began to imperceptibly close up. There were some tense moments as the first boats drifted, rather than sailed, across the finish line. Helena Ann crossed first, but would her lead be sufficient to make up for the handicap she had to give to the second boat, Mystic Sky? In fact she made it,with some 3 1/2 minutes to spare.
On Sunday, with the wind continuing to stutter and fade, and the sound of holiday-makers on a packed Camber Sands travelling clearly over the water, the fleet assembled for race four. The previous day’s winner, Helena Ann was now OOD and therefore start boat and taking no part in the racing.
Mystic Sky, Mallard, Lady Jane and Limbo Girl were racing again and they were joined by Roxanne and Jemma. The wind was very light to almost non-existent and the boats drifted, more than sailed, across the start line. The big, 38ft, Roxanne took start line honours and finding some wind that no-one else knew about, glided away on her own leaving some of the others taking many minutes to get across the line. The rest of the race followed Saturday’s pattern, with the course once again being shortened. But this time Roxanne easily maintained her lead with her own private cats-paw of wind and won by a comfortable margin of 6 1/2 minutes (after allowing for handicap) over the second boat, Mallard.
Some skilful sailing by all boats in difficult and often frustrating conditions – but at least a chance to get a bit of a tan!
Next week, from May 20/23 sees the Sailing Club’s annual Push the Boat Out event when the Club opens its doors to anyone who thinks they might be interested in finding out more about boats, be they cruisers or dinghies.
Photos: John Minter and RHSC