Thames A Rater Nationals at Upper Thames Sailing Club

The largest ever turnout of Thames 'A' Raters in Bourne End history for the 2007 nationals © Mark Laity

The largest ever turnout of Thames 'A' Raters in Bourne End history for the 2007 nationals © Mark Laity

The largest ever turnout of Thames 'A' Raters in Bourne End history for the 2007 nationals © Mark Laity

The wettest Bourne End Week in living memory may have dampened spirits but couldn’t prevent some competitive sailing and the largest ever turnout of Thames ‘A’ Raters in Bourne End history stretching back over to 1887.

The racing for the Thames Championship, the Rater national championship, saw honours evenly spread. It did not look that way during the first race when Martin Hunter helming Spindrift quickly opened a massive lead to win. Behind him Miles Palmer helming Vagabond, celebrating its centenary year, had a good battle with Martin Paul Collen in the 1909 Kingfisher, which overtook him late on to take second.

Race two for the 1885 Clayton Jackson Cup saw things change. The 1898 Ulva, helmed by Ossie Stewart, led Spindrift off at the start, and had a good battle early on. However Vagabond, which had a poor start, rapidly worked through the fleet and overtook Spindrift to take the cup, with the Paul Browning helmed Osprey in third.

Gloomy skies and slowly rising winds greeted day two. With both race three and four counting for the Scamp Cup Osprey had a good early battle with Spindrift to take the first race, with the Kevin Pearson helmed Lady Jane then pushing Spindrift into third. Osprey proved an easy winner in the afternoon, followed by Kingfisher and Spindrift.

On day three it rained and rained. It also blew very hard, and most crews decided to sit out the morning race. The race saw another Spindrift/Osprey battle, won by Osprey, and a creditable third by Bess Rhodes in Champagne. In the afternoon the wind started strong and ended light, giving the crews problems with the steadily increasing stream. Once again it was the consistent Osprey that took the day’s trophy, the Commodore Cup, followed by Spindrift.

The final day saw patchy wind and strong stream. On the startline there were no less than 16 raters, a record, and Spindrift got its usual excellent start to set the pace and the afternoon also proved an anticlimax in the Spindrift/Osprey contest as Spindrift made an early break and Osprey never showed,. So Spindrift took the Wokefield Cup and the overall Thames Championship, with Osprey second and Vagabond third.

Now it was the Queen’s Cup, the most prestigious race in the rater calendar. Presented by Queen Victoria in 1893 the race is set for nine miles. Raced in light winds, strong stream with and steady rain, the downstream start, caused some mayhem. Johnny Smith helming the 1906 Scamp had a flyer to hit the front followed by a chasing pack led by the 1910 Caprice IV, helmed by David Lowry.

Behind, Vagabond, which had had a dreadful start worked its way through the fleet to join the leading pack, where Spindrift had passed Caprice. A clever manoeuvre by Vagabond got her around the upstream mark into second, but she was hunted down by Spindrift as both closed on Scamp, but not fast enough and she took the gun followed by Spindrift and Vagabond.

Overall Results: (Click here to fill in Gear Guide information)