Saturday, September 4 saw the final race in the Rye Harbour Sailing Club’s Commodore’s Regatta series for cruisers. The recent late summer had, it seemed, departed and the day dawned cloudy with the threat of blustery showers.
The 38ft Helena Anne was down to a crew of two and up against the usual competition of Roxanne (also 38ft), Close Encounters (31ft) and Limbo Girl (22ft). Officer of the Day was Mallard.
As usual, the start off the Harbour entrance was an upwind beat towards Winchelsea Beach and the Rock Channel Marine buoy with the wind was steadily increasing from a modest 14 knots or so, up to in excess of 20 knots with some gusts over 27 knots. Rye Bay, as always, did its best to make life as uncomfortable as possible with the boats crashing from wave top to wave top in the short steep seas. Most of the fleet had shortened sail but the heavier Helena Anne was able to carry full sail, albeit at the expense of the lee deck spending more time under water than above it and the crew member on the genoa sheet winches getting more than his fair share of sea water regularly dumped on him.
Then it was round the first mark and an easing of the sheets as we set off for a slightly more comfortable broad reach (the wind was now on the beam instead of straight ahead) for the Fairway buoy. Roxanne was ahead and the other two smaller boats had been left some way in our wake (although their better handicap rating would help them on corrected time at the end of the race).
Rounding the buoy it seemed that Helena Anne had made up a bit of time on Roxanne and in the dead run (wind right behind) down to the RHSC mark off Camber, which Roxanne appeared to overshoot, the gap between the two boats narrowed still further. The beat back to the start gate, before doing a final short loop to the finish, saw Roxanne start to pull away again. Delay caused by a fouled genoa sheet on Helena Anne didn’t help and the constant effort tacking and winching on this big heavy boat was starting to tell on the crew – seconds were being lost each time we tacked. To beat Roxanne on corrected time (i.e. after the handicap rating had been taken into account) Helena Anne had to finish within no more than a few minutes of her.
The two boats finally crossed the line seven minutes apart – would that be close enough? No, was the answer, not quite and Roxanne took the honours by just over two minutes on corrected time. And what of the other two boats? Close Encounters had retired but the little Limbo Girl had battled her way through the seas to finish a very creditable 23 minutes, on corrected time, behind the winner. However, by taking part in every race, she came out overall winner of the series, so congratulations to her and her skipper David Preston.
As always, it seems, as soon as the boats had returned to their berths, the wind started to ease and even the sun threatened to come out. Perfect, then to retire to the Sailing Club for a well-earned barbecue, a pint and a chat with other sailors. An invigorating sail followed by food, a drink and good company – what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon!
Finally, if there are some sharp-eyed readers who think the heading picture looks familiar, you are right! While typical of this race, it was taken (and used) earlier in the season. Unfortunately, this weekend the combination of weather conditions and the small crew meant that the camera stayed firmly in the photographer’s pocket!
Photo: John Minter