Crouch Yacht Club Autumn Series - Race 5

Seven boats competed in Sunday's race from the CYC line. In a good Northerly breeze and with an ebb tide, the fleet headed down to the Roach in order to get a beat. The first mark was Greenward followed by two laps to Jubilee and Redward, with a leg up to Cliff Reach to finish. Grace and Danger and Mantra were both close to the line on the gun. Duncan Haley in the Corby 29 Double Trouble set their asymmetric spinnaker quickly, as did the J80 Glorious Fools who had a lot of ground to make up after being some way off the line at the start.

Mantra were slower to hoist their distinctive red asymmetric and were overhauled by Duncan Haley in Double Trouble quickly, but were able to hold off the J80 right up to Greenward. By the time the leading pack were at the RCYC, Martin and Kirsty Brooks' Dehler 33 Sapphire were leading the fleet and rounded Greenward ahead, closely followed by Double Trouble, the Aphrodite 101 Mantra, with Glorious Fools in fourth.

At the mark, the J80 hoisted on the port gybe, whereas Mantra gybed before hoisting and this allowed Glorious Fools to get through them. Sapphire and Double Trouble enjoyed close racing throughout right up to the finish, with Double Trouble getting ahead on the first beat to Redward, but unable to shake the lower rated Dehler off their tail. Coming in to the finish, Double Trouble came down under spinnaker on the North Shore, with Sapphire breaking off to the South Shore to try to get through.

A timely puff gave Double Trouble line honours, but Sapphire were just seconds behind. Glorious Fools were close behind them with Mantra chasing them, just 2 minutes 53 seconds behind the first boat to finish.

On corrected time in the IRC division, Mantra, owned and sailed by Phillip Harbott won by just under 3 minutes from Glorious Fools, owned by Digger Harden and Pete Jackson, helmed this week by Ben Harden. They were just 33 seconds ahead of Sapphire, with Double Trouble fourth. This victory for Mantra puts her ahead in the series on count back from Glorious Fools, with both on 4 points.

In the Local Handicap fleet, Grace and Danger the SJ27 got the best start just a couple of metres off the line on the gun. They were closely followed by the Elan 31 Jeannie owned by John Saunders and the Dehler 34 Martinique owned by Mark Lyons. The longer waterline length boats got through the SJ27, but the race was not without incident.

At Jubilee the SJ had a sail problem, with a twisted headsail, causing them to sail on past the mark. Martinique also had a problem when the headsail halyard turning block came apart. However, with the fair tide legs out of the Roach, both boats didn't lose out too badly.

Martinique led up river, finishing first in that division, being shortened before the leg up to Cliff Reach. Jeannie were chasing hard on their heels, with Grace and Danger sailing up under the North Shore.

On corrected time, all three were on 1 hour and 31 minutes, with Grace and Danger winning 45 seconds head of Jeannie, with Martinique just 2 seconds behind them. Overall, Grace and Danger is leading counting two 1sts and a second, with Jeannie just a point behind in second, with two seconds and a first; Martinique is third on 9 points.