Isle of Sheppey Sailing Club Round the Island Race

Under 16 Helm Trophy regained!

The 30th of August dawned misty at Minster with a bit more wind than expected - about 12mph, and rising… Having arrived on the Island the previous night, we were in no rush to rig and get ready, but still had some minor problems to deal with once launched.

After a good start, it was a long beat to the first headland against the strong spring tide of the Thames. Along with most of our fleet we were short tacking the beach to stay in shallower waters where there was less current. Everyone had to be really careful to read the water ahead because there were many small reefs and rocks. It was quite tense because the whole fleet was compressed against the tide so you had to watch out for traffic. It was on this leg that dad (Chris Brown, from Fidessa fastwave) and I in the Laser 2000 had a port and starboard incident with another Laser 2000. We had rights and hailed them but they just carried on so I had to avoid them or we definitely would have hit (they were disqualified at the subsequent protest hearing)!

Once we got around the headland it was a close reach to the estuary. All the boats were screaming along and we were still only about 8 boat lengths from a concreted shore with waves crashing against it! We really got planing down some big waves! After the reach we turned around the last headland into the Swale estuary, cutting it very close! With the kite up we and other boats continued to rocket along with the tide, now heading for the “famous” low bridge, although we couldn’t see it because the mist had not yet cleared. There were a few points where we went to close to the shore and had to crash gybe out of it! By now the faster boats and catamarans were catching up and zooming past us. It was my favourite leg because I could finally relax a bit, there weren’t any big waves and the sun was shining. However, there were some massive gusts to watch out for.

The low railway bridge was a nightmare this year! We had our kite up until about 6 metres away from the bridge! There is no space to turn head to wind in and several cats came up unable to stop and tried to jump the queue to get under the bridge. Our boat was hit by a cat and wedged next to the pontoon just when we were about to capsize the boat! We probably lost 2 and a half minutes here this year as we came out behind a few boats that we had been in front of! It was quite unfair as well because a ship had to get down the river later and the bridge was raised for them and some dinghies went through, so they never had the problems we encountered!

After the bridge, the pressure was back on as the finish was only another hour or so away… Conditions deteriorated wildly into a very unsteady breeze that would suddenly turn 90 degrees and the strength was on and off from 2 knots to 20! It was vital to be ready to ease in and out about a yard of mainsheet and anticipate the gust before it arrived. Otherwise you would definitely capsize! We didn’t, but saw many that did. As we continued past Sheerness docks we could see the corner where the Thames and the Medway joined. It did not look pleasant: an area of towering waves taller than me, all with a white crest. This was like the final hurdle, more difficult than anything before. You had to get the right balance of speed and height so you didn’t capsize or go in irons. If that happened in these troughs, your boat would die! The other problem was that it was impossible to tack until you were out of the worst of it. Luckily dad chose a perfect moment and I did a good tack so we were fine. And at last we could see the finish! A port tack bias beat and then we were finished, after 4 and a half hours of the most challenging sailing we’d had all year!

We came 19th monohull, top Laser 2000 and around 15 minutes behind Dave Angwin who was the top BSC Blaze this year (well done!). There were 126 entries (lots of Cats), the Race record was broken too, with a Tornado Sport finishing the 40+ mile race in 2 hours 10 minutes (!). I retained the title of first under 16 helm- although I felt that I had worked much harder for it this year, coming very close (2 and a half minutes) to winning first ladies helm overall. Next year I will be too old for the under 16 trophy so I’ll have to try harder and win the 1st ladies helm or let my younger brother Jamie helm with Dad!