This race was held on Saturday July 5th, starting at Beccles Amateur Sailing Club at 9.30am.  The keelboat start was at 9.35 and as the start was downwind and downstream, River Cruisers were allowed to start from the bank at the last moment without penalty, because of the wind strength and direction and the narrowness of the river.

Two cruisers represented the Yare Sailing Club; Anne, helmed by Kelvin Halifax and Pandora, helmed by Bob Soutar.  Both boats had passed the first start boats before Aldeby Stumps and both chose to take the Somerleyton buoy before the Oulton Broad buoy.

The wind was in the upper moderate range, blowing from the south west.  Both cruisers were lucky enough to round the Somerleyton buoy at low slack water, before proceeding to Oulton.  During this time, Anne heaved to for ten minutes whilst she twice had to remove foreign debris from her rudder, whilst Pandora lost time trying to derig the broken-sparred topsail.  This was not easy, as there were two sword-like ends to lower without damaging the mainsail.  This was also during a very gusty wind in the Whitehouse Reach.

In the afternoon, the wind gradually eased and the last stretch through the trees was frustrating.  Anne entered the Aldeby Stumps with no steerage, but a bump on the brickwork straightened her up and she completed the course.  Pandora finished after six hours.  Anne was slightly quicker than Pandora, beating her by 1,000 seconds on corrected time.

There were ten boats in the race and overall Anne came first, with Pandora second, which was a good result for the YSC.

BS