Happily, as the season has worn on, the
weather for our regattas has improved. All the UK's Saturday downpours and
thunderstorms missed us and we bathed in warm sunshine and gentle breezes all
day. Sunday was duller, with just one light rain shower, but the sun was back
for the prize giving. Proceedings kicked off with the Under 30s race, for
which there was a great turnout of seven yachts, most of which were new to this
regatta. Tom Wildman on Skylark unfortunately had to retire when the
carbon gaff failed, but the other six enjoyed a good race lapping Cantley Reach
in the north easterly breeze. Jasper Richardson on Ladybird took the honours and
the Jenner Trophy, winning by 13 seconds from Peter Cullum on Starlight Lady.
After a good break for lunch, the pursuit
race began with Valkyrie II leading the way and Harrier setting off five
minutes after her. With the lightish wind, conditions clearly favoured the
faster boats with bigger rigs and most of the earlier starters were eventually
overtaken. Alice Rose eventually worked her way through the fleet to the
front; a lead she held until the dying seconds of the race, when Ladybird slid
past to win. Jessie May and Morning Calm also managed to overtake Farthing
towards the end and onlookers at the pub had a grandstand view of the exciting
finish.
About twenty members stayed to enjoy an
evening meal together in the pub and another good social occasion was had.
Sunday dawned with the light north
easterly to easterly wind still in situ, making course setting quite a
challenge, especially with the strong equinoxal tides. As the flood tide
set in, its adverse effect grew greater when sailing against it and, while this
was manageable in open airs, Langley Woods defeated many boats as the morning
wore on. With a buoy down near the factory and the second mark close above
Langley Woods, the almost three lap course became very tricky on the final
passage downriver past the trees. Gallingly, for those stuck there at the
time, Tamara somehow glided straight through by hugging the windward bank and
she became the only slower boat to have a respectable finish, ending up in
seventh place. Ladybird won again, by a mere three seconds from Starlight
Lady, with Farthing in third. Puck persevered,
through lunchtime and the afternoon briefing, finishing as the third race began,
a full hour after everyone else. Full marks for sticking it out!
Much to everyone's relief, the top mark
was brought down below Langley for the last race, but with a tack away from it
in light airs, it was extremely difficult to round and many found themselves
being swept upriver above the mark against their will. The initial four
rounds were shortened to not quite three again, although this still made it very
tight for the slower boats, with Stella Genesta just squeaking home 81 seconds
before the 4pm cut off time. Ladybird would have made it a hat-trick, but
a one minute penalty dropped them down to second place behind Starlight Lady.
Ladybird went home with both the John Mann
Trophy for the best boat built before 1940, for which all three races count and
she also took the Nelson Trophy for overall winner. The weekend
presentations were followed by that for the Diamond Jubilee Trophy (best six
races from the Spring, July and Autumn Regattas, with one result needed from
each event) won by Vixen on the strength of her strong performance at the first
two events. The Yare Autumn Cruiser Series also concluded at this event,
being comfortably won by Farthing with just 6 points from the three
events. Second, with 16 points, was Jessie May. Melinda took the
Fast Division Trophy, Sabrina 2 the Medium and Tamara the Slow. First
Northern based boat, not already having won a trophy, was Starlight Lady, with
Morning Calm taking the Southern equivalent. Harrier claimed the Anchor
Trophy for last place.
Proceedings then wound up with the raffle
(the original plan of a raffola being abandoned due to pressures of time) before
most people dispersed at the end of another successful event.