Tenth River Exe Regatta at Topsham Sailing Club
by Rex Frost 5 Jul 2010 22:34 BST
3-4 July 2010
This weekend saw the tenth River Exe Regatta writes Rex Frost, held in widely varying conditions, in and just outside the river. Saturday morning began with no wind, but by 0900 there was enough breeze to get the dinghy fleet moving and up river to the two course areas. At the same time 20 cruising yachts (best turnout ever) from up river began to gather off the mouth of the river for their racing in the bay.
Division 1 of the cruiser fleet was dominated by Exe SC with their yachts filling the first 4 places in every race and class 2 was equally dominated by TSC boats. In very gentle conditions the first race for Div 1 was won by Frank Rowsell in a little J24 whilst in Div 2, the little “Peanuts” of Dick Holifield from TSC came first. He then went on the win every race in his group. The second race began in rather breezy conditions, but after 45 mins the wind completely disappeared leaving only 2 boats (the usual front runners of Chris Rhodes and Steve Best) anywhere near the finish line, so that the results were resolved by taking the times for the first lap.
Topsham Sailing Club as hosts organised a wonderful Saturday evening with a hog roast and music. Many of the competitors and helpers made the effort to get there; some from Exmouth arriving in all sorts of water borne transport. Simon Turl’s, “Lumbering Elephant” moving rather slowly carrying about 20.
On Sunday the weather went as forecast to 20-25 knots (luckily no rain) and the race committee were to be commended for staying on station in very lively conditions. Predictably less of the smaller yachts turned out but great racing ensued. Competition on the start line was quite hot, with most boats jostling (very) closely for places, in strong wind and waves. Div 1 again had very tight competition, with the first 4 boats all finishing within 4 seconds of each other (on corrected time). The Race officer being keen to get off somewhere calmer (his main anchor had broken), the next race followed quickly and again the fleet stayed quite tightly bunched with the first 6 boats, “Peanut”, “Jammin”, “Tiger”, First Sight” , “Vela Fresca” and “Fable” all arriving at the windward mark within seconds of each other. The only escapee was Steve Best’s J80, which then took off at 15kts when he hoisted his kite for a short crosswind burst, passing the larger “Peanut” which had been leading (doing 9 kts). The conditions did reveal a number of defects in boats, “Red Fox” being particularly prone, but luckily no major mishap or injuries. After the 2 short races all crew were happy to return to their moorings for a calm lunch and probably a drink before moving off to Prizegiving.
Dinghy fleet 1 sailed near SYC in a fairly normal course off their race box line. 32 dinghies competed with the first race being won by the Merlin of Dave Lee(SYC) with the youth team of Alex Horlock (ESC) and Ed Pearce (RS400) coming 2nd. Those that didn’t sail out of the tide along the sandbank were out of contention. The 3rd race produced a few arguments at marks, as the tide was becoming something of a problem. (The race within the race was between Alex and “Figgie “Cain where Alex led in the 3rd race after breaking his toe straps, only to be overtaken by going to the wrong side of the sandbank. On the Sunday Alex was first to the top mark, only to be overtaken by Figgie in a massive gust and then clawing his way back to finish in front. In the second race Alex capsized and at that stage did not have the energy left to fight back and Figgie finished well ahead.)
Sunday saw a good many “Did not Competes” and lots of “did not finish” results but predictably the top 10 places did not change appreciably. The RS 800 of Russell Gibbs (SYC) continued his run of good results, flying around the course to win both races in very testing conditions while the young, light team of Alex and Ed turned in a very creditable 2nd and 4th to be then pushed into 3rd overall by the very experienced “Figgie” Cain in his RS 400. The ESC RS 200 of Rick Newcombe and Andy Williams did well on the Sunday pushing them into 10th place, while the light crew of Rosie Sands and Jess Lock were totally overwhelmed. James and George Payne did well to finish the races and were even luckier not to be run over by Andy when they capsized in front of him.
Dinghy fleet 2 writes Guy Farrant, attracted 34 entries dominated by 13 Comet Trios, all from Exe SC, bar one visitor from Cotswold SC , “Red Baron”, and 5 Devon Yawls. A few of the latter disgraced themselves by poor observance of the racing rules. From the beginning it was obvious that the boat to beat was the SYC Wayfarer of Liam McGrath. The first race on Saturday started bang on the scheduled time in a sunny, light, Southerly breeze with a triangle- sausage course near buoys 17-19. There was a pin end bias and with the flood tide this end became congested and many had to peel off, gybe and go off on port tack. This paid and put Andrew and Caroline McAusland in “Piglet” into the lead, which they held. All the fleet struggled against the tide near 17 buoy and it was very shallow going over the mussel bed to the wing mark .The sausage leg was very tactical with many place changes. Exe Commodore Frankie Upton with Sue Burridge in”Pebbles” were well up in this race and gained 4th place. Guy Farrant and Marilynn Booker in “Go with the Flow” were 2nd with Symon Garratt and Nicky Groucutt in “Abigail Rose” 3rd.
The second race took place on top of the tide. A much cleaner start and Liam and Sue McGrath in their Wayfarer “Silver Lining” led throughout. Close behind were 3 Trios who had a very competitive race and on the finish line it was “Go with the Flow” 2nd, Bob and Colette Horlock in “Exe t’sea” just in front of “Piglet” 4th ( at the time these two both thought the other boat was ahead).
Race 3. The tide was now ebbing and the tactics changed completely. With a very messy start many gybed around onto port and away. “Silver Lining” went into the lead, but amongst the Trios there was good tactical racing between “Piglet” 2nd, “Go with the Flow” 3rd, “Exe T’sea” 4th and Martin Luce and Andrew Soper in “Tatu” 5th.
Race 4 on Sunday had a strong SW wind, so the inevitable capsizes followed. “Go with the Flow” had a superb start at the pin end, then along the edge of the mussel bank and a port approach to the windward mark just ahead of the main fleet on Starboard and into the lead ahead of the Wayfarer to the wing and leeward marks. Unfortunately this lead was thrown away by grounding on the mussel bed on the second beat. This allowed “Abigail Rose” to show their prowess in fresh conditions as they went on to win ahead of “Silver Lining” 2nd, “Piglet” 3rd, “Go with the Flow” 4th.
Race 5; the wind had now built to 15 kts with nasty gusts of 22 kts. This took its toll with numerous capsizes and some gear failure; only 9 boats finished. The Wayfarer clinched overall 1st by winning this race. “Abigail” powered to 2nd place. Tony Brewster and Toby Elliott in “Tamsyn 2” gained a creditable 3rd and “Go with the Flow” hung in to gain 4th.
The Juniors appreciated the gentle conditions on Saturday for their, mostly, first serious regatta outing. Freddie Jones managed to get line honours in the first 3 races which built him up well for taking a pounding in the harsh conditions on Sunday. The final winners, Chris and James Turl are used to rough weather regattas and held on to produce a clean set of firsts (on corrected time) for all races. The turnout for all the Juniors was commendable and will hopefully tempt them into higher level racing soon.
Particular thanks must go to the RIBs who kept the dinghies safe, especially on the Sunday and to the Race officer Trevor Greenslade TSC who ran a very smooth organisation.
Most of the competitors and helpers travelled to Topsham on the Sunday afternoon for a very lavish tea followed by Prizegiving. The prize draw was as usual, limited to those in attendance and a great many people will have found out on Monday morning that they had missed out. Regatta Chairman, Tim Baker thanked the sponsors “Pennys” and “All gadgets marine” for their contributions and assistance and expressed his pleasure at the numbers of guests visiting, especially for the Saturday evening. TSC Commodore, Kate Hattersley said “In our 125th year it has been a delight to host the regatta and to be honoured by the turnout from other clubs.”
Overall Results:
Cruisers class 1
1st PEANUT Chris Rhodes ESC
2nd FIRST SIGHT Martin Minter ESC
3rd JAMMIN Steve Best ESC
Cruiser class 2
1st PEANUTS Dick Holifield TSC
2nd PELICAN James Fellows TSC
3rd ARTEMIS Steve Preston TSC
Dinghies class 1
Russell Gibbs and Mark Fileman-Wright SYC
2nd R (Figgie) Cain and Owen Taylor SYC
3rd Alex Horlock and Ed Pearce ESC
Dinghies class 2
1st Liam and Sue McGrath SYC
2nd Andrew and Caroline McAusland ESC
3rd Symon Garratt and Nicky Groucutt ESC
Dinghies class 3 (Juniors)
1st James and Chris Turl ESC
2nd Roger Mosely SYC
3rd Freddie Jones ESC
Hornets
1st R Garry and M McGrath SYC
2nd Tim Coombes and Jayne Smith SYC
3rd P Bennet and J Shelton, Shgoreham SC
Devon Yawls
1st Richard Babbage and Bruce Grieg TSC
2nd Ed Williams –Hawkes and Lorie Evans EPBSC
3rd David and Di Hayes TSC
Multihulls
1st J Donovan and C McKillop SYC
2nd D smith and W King SYC
3rd M Arstall and D Tyrell SYC