Late May Bank Holiday Racing in The Range

Published 11:47 on 7 Jun 2023

Following the initial Cruiser Race where only 2 boats competed and Peter Waring and St Anthony got a great result over Peter Sandover and Ardea, a good turn out was seen for the second race with 7 boats heading out to the start line. 

The day was bright sunshine with a strong and rather chilly NEly wind, approx. 16 to 20 plus knots, and a relative flat sea. This was not what the Starfire crew wanted for their shakedown sail of the season, but 2 reefs and a managed genoa meant she behaved very well with all systems working. 

The rest of the fleet varied their sail configurations with Ardea and Nikita having one or more reefs but Island Girl, Mulberry and St Anthony braving full sail. Peter Waring commented later that he had too much sail up but didnt want to reef with his inexperienced crew. Graham Nurser, in Mulberry, benefited from the crewing skills of Crispin Waterhouse who was constantly furling and unfurling the genoa and feathering the main in the gusts.

Peter Sandover, as race officer, set the course, starting at the Harbour entrance and heading to Starehole, Gara, Prawle and back to Starehole with two laps. 

The start gun went and all boats got underway. Unfortunately, Moonraker had a reefing problem and given the conditions wisely decided to retire.

Island Girl with full sail powered off but Ardea cut in front of her at the Mark. Maybe Scud had the wrong position for the Starehole virtual Mark, and as a consequence Ardea led up the beat. Starfire, cutting inside Mulberry, went into third and the rest of the fleet followed. 

Ardea and Island girl fought it out at the front up the first beat with Starfire holding third and the last 3 having a close competiion behind. 

After Gara, Island Girl used her powerful rig to start to power away; followed by Ardea, Starfire and the rest of the fleet. Ardea noticed that there was a convenient lobster pot placed at the Prawle virtual Marker. This gave everyone a physical point to sail around. At the end of the first lap, positions were the same but Ardea was not far behind Island Girl and the 3 back boats, stayed close together and not far behind Starfire. These positions continued up to Gara, with St Anthony having a good beat with Mulberry and Nikita in close company.

From Gara to Prawle on the second lap, Starfire went a bit low, particularly when spotting the wrong lobster pot to round and had to put in an extra tack, losing ground to the following boats.
As Mulberry, St Anthony and Nikita rounded Prawle, they were joined by a Maxi 1050 from the Yealm Yacht club, with Alistair Morley being very athletic on board, and spinnaker up. A good spectator sight particularly when they had a few problems with the spinnaker.

Yealm YC were on a passage race from Dartmouth to Salcombe and had chosen Prawle as their finishing point. They had an excellent meal in the club in the evening when they expressed surprise the Mark didnt actually exist!

The finishing places saw Island Girl taking the gun followed by Ardea and then Starfire some way behind. Mulberry and St Anthony had a good tussle with Mulberry finishing 4th followed by St Anthony and Nikita. Once times were collected and corrected, Ardea took first place followed by Island Girl, then St Anthony and Mulberry whose good handicaps and ability to carry full sail meant they were close enough behind Starfire to go ahead by a couple of minutes, with Nikita not far behind.

A great sail and a good turn-out. Lets hope for similar for the next Racing in the Range on the 8th July. We are also keen for a good fleet for the annual Skerries race. With so many boats away at the moment we have decided to postpone for a while. Watch this space!