Squib Gold Cup at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, Burnham

by Phil Shanahan 5 May 2017 07:51 BST 29-30 April 2017

The 2017 Squib Gold Cup was hosted by the Burnham Squib Fleet and organised under the Flag of The Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, over the May Bank Holiday. Trapezoid courses were set to accommodate the 707 East Zone Championship which was raced off the same starting line.

Three visitors from Waldringfield, Stone and Tollesbury joined the nineteen local boats to make an impressive fleet for the first event of the Squib Traveller Series. Saturday morning, and the crews gathered for a briefing in the Royal Corinthian with barely a breath of wind and a strong flood tide. After a 1 hour postponement, the fleet headed for the river Roach to gather for a further postponement. The wind was Southerly, as forecast, and the course was set in the Roach with a fair tide beat. The 707s got away cleanly but soon after the Squib start the wind backed to the East and most of the fleet layed the windward mark on port tack. The PRO, Edwin Buckley, let the race run its course, pleased to get one race under his belt. The race was won by Malcolm Hutchings and Andy Ramsey in Lady Penelope. It was all change for the second race.

After some delay waiting for the wind to settle from the South East, the fleets gathered in the river Crouch on the north shore, this time for a foul tide beat. There was a bias on the pin end close to the shore, with the Squibs barely making way over the tide. Most of the fleet stayed close to the line. There were four general recalls before the PRO reached for the black Flag and the second race was finally underway. After the first beat, the tide had changed and during the two lap race gained strength with numerous boats changing places as the marks were misjudged in the strong tide. The second race was also won by Hutchings with the National Champion Nigel Grogan and Ian Keely in Helmut Shoing in second place.

The third race got away cleanly and once again places were won and lost on judging the tide at the approach to the windward mark. The race was won by Nick Tolhurst and Mel Titmus in By The Lee. The fleet headed home for the night, after 8 hours on the water, with Hutchings just one point ahead of Grogan. Raymond and Deborah Althorp, from Tollesbury (Nemesis), had a similar overnight one point lead in the Silver Fleet.

On Sunday morning there was a complete change in the weather as the PRO faced another challenging day with winds gusting 30 knots. It was 2pm before the wind moderated and the Committee boat headed up river to set a windward / leeward course with another foul tide beat. Most of the fleet battled it out in the shallow water of the North shore while Ian Gray in Chequemate tried the South shore with deeper water but clearer air. It was the North shore that paid. Nigel Grogan was first to the windward mark and kept the lead until the end of the fourth race. Grogan was now leading the event.

The last race of the day was started just ten minutes before the time limit of 16:00. The whole fleet gathered on the North shore for some close short tacking, but it was a port and starboard between the two contenders for the trophy that proved decisive. Nigel Grogan headed for clear water to take his penalty, a manoeuvre that was difficult to recover from in the strong tide. Mike Probert, sailing with Duncan Grindley in Surprise, took the honours in the final race, but Hutchings took 3rd place which was enough to secure the Gold Cup.

Mark and Ian Knights sailing Quids In won the Silver Fleet with Jason Phelps / Carl Anderson (Magic Roundabout) runners up.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Boat Name	Fleet	Helm	Crew	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Pts
1	819	Lady Penelope	Gold	Malcolm Hutchings	Andy Ramsey	RCYC	1	1	4	3	3	12
2	105	Helmut Shöing II	Gold	Nigel Grogan	Jack Grogan	RCYC	3	2	2	1	8	16
3	868	By The Lee	Gold	Nick Tolhurst	Mel Titmus	RCYC	5	6	1	5	4	21
4	760	Surprise	Gold	Mike Probert	Duncan Grindley	RCYC	6	3	7	7	1	24
5	811	Spoof	Gold	Micky Wright	Alex Porteous	RCYC	9	4	3	6	2	24
6	72	Guy Fawkes	Gold	Phil Aspinall	Howie Enkle	RCYC	2	8	10	4	7	31
7	823	Humphrey	Gold	Robert Coyle	Marc Rawinsky	RCYC	4	14	8	2	5	33
8	157	Cheque Mate	Gold	Ian Gray	Ian Simons	RCYC	10	5	5	8	6	34
9	880	Quidsin	Silver	Mark Knights	Ian Knights	RCYC & BCC	17	9	11	10	9	56
10	736	Magic Roundabout	Silver	Jason Phelps/Carl Anderson	Jason Phelps/Carl Anderson	RCYC	20	7	12	9	11	59
11	806	Nemesis	Silver	Raymond Apthorp	Deborah Apthorp	Tollesbury SC	19	10	6	13	12	60
12	40	Ruby	Silver	David Cannell	Peter Greatrex	Waldringfield SC	11	12	13	12	13	61
13	727	Mosquito	Silver	Ben Luddington	Amy Spare	RCYC	21	15	14	11	14	75
14	83	Easy	Silver	Ian Brand	Nick Peel	RCYC	14	17	16	23	10	80
15	595	Outlaw	Silver	Ian Scott	Iona Martin	RCYC	18	13	9	23	23	86
16	815	Atalanta	Silver	Andy Wood‑Hill	Richard Henshaw	RCYC	16	11	17	23	23	90
17	25	Crackers	Silver	Phil Shanahan	Noel Sutcliffe	RCYC	15	16	15	23	23	92
18	779	What's the Story	Gold	Simon Sanders	Sarah Sanders	RCYC	7	23	23	23	23	99
19	883	Just in Time	Gold	Neil Fulcher	Ricky Idenise	Stone	8	23	23	23	23	100
20	862	Brutus	Gold	Simon Griffin	Dave Hyde	RCYC	12	23	23	23	23	104
21	21	Tombo	Silver	Bill Jones	Alex Porteous	RCYC	13	23	23	23	23	105
22	232	Baldrick	Silver	Mick King	Bob Tranter	RCYC	22	23	23	23	23	114