Having started in style with a Pimms party on Friday night, Breydon Regatta continued in fine form on Saturday with a good breeze and dry weather.  A dozen yachts enjoyed the romp around Breydon on a reaching course, with the slow boats being set off first to keep the race compact in order to leave enough time for both lunch and the passage race.  With the photographer from Anglia Afloat about, as well as the club’s resident photographer, it is to be hoped no-one was feeling camera-shy!

Most notable was the dual between Anne and Dryad, who battled each other all the way round with Anne, despite being nominally the faster boat, unable to get past Tim Frary and eventually crossing the line 46 seconds behind. Dryad won the race by 14 seconds from Raisena, thus winning that particular rivalry, but Anne had to settle for a 5^th place tie with Pandora III .  Save for Fair Lady, just over 2½ minutes covered the entire fleet on corrected time – a very close set of results indeed.

For the Passage Race to Reedham and back in the afternoon (with an added loop on Breydon at the end to torture the competitors) skippers had to choose their own start time.  With the tide turning a little early and the wind dropping out and veering from NW to NE, the early time slot turned out to be the right choice.  This first start in fact consisted of the three slowest boats and Maidie; the latter powering around the course in an hour and a half, nearly 45 minutes faster than the next boat, Raisena, who left an hour later.  The fact that the three slowest boats in the fleet had the 2^nd to 4^th fastest elapsed times showed just how much of a benefit that early start was.  No tight set of results this time, but instead a spread of nearly an hour over the corrected times.

Many enjoyed a pleasant meal in the Berney Arms that evening, but some who were too late to book very enterprisingly went out and caught their own supper instead.  Sea bass, anyone?

Sunday was sunnier than Saturday and a slight shift in wind direction gave a good course around the buoys on Breydon, with reaches on all points of sailing.  A few reefs were in evidence, but most carried full sail and made the most of the conditions.  With the reefed Anne not able to hold Dryad, the dual this time was between May and Cordon Rouge who, both being on the same handicap, match raced each other all the way round, with May eventually crossing the line half a boat’s length ahead.

At the briefing, Officer of the Day, Robert Self had emphasised the way every second could count, bearing in mind the Saturday morning results, and the third start clearly took this to heart, producing a text book start between them.  For Lucky Breeze in particular, this paid off well, with David and crew managing a second place to split Raisena and Dryad, the former getting her revenge on Dryad for the first race.

So, with each race going to a different winner, the overall result was very much influenced by the passage race, with this being a fixed result to count and one of the Breydon races to be the discard.  David Walker was delighted to win the slow boat trophy, having set out with the aim of just winning one souvenir glass, but astonished to discover that Lucky Breeze had also won overall.  In fact her 2^nd and 3^rd places easily overcame Raisena’s seven points, with the other two high handicap boats coming in 3^rd and 4^th to prove just how vital the passage race turned out to be.

The crew of Raisena did have some consolation though, winning several prizes on the raffle, including the top two of a gin and tonic set and the £50 hamper.