EAORA Houghton Cup at Crouch Yacht Club
by Tony Merewether 19 Jun 2012 09:47 BST
17 June 2012
With a forecast of gale force winds the race officer made the very sensible decision to postpone the start of the 101st EAORA 50 mile Houghton Cup race, organised by the Crouch Yacht Club by 24 hours until Sunday 17th June. Winds gusted between 40 to 45 knots with a top recorded gust at Clacton of 50 knots justifying the race officer's decision much to the relief of all of the competitors.
On the Sunday morning a slightly smaller fleet set out from the Branklet buoy off Burnham under spinnaker in a gusty 22 knot breeze at 08.00 with class 3 led by Bob Fawkes' Carter 37 'Tigo IV' who established a good lead out of the river until the two J's in class 2 took over. Stan Fenton and Nigel Cook's J-105 'Fay J' was just ahead of Tim and Tony Cross's J-92 'Upstart' with Stuart Galloway at the helm. Class 1 was led by Angus Bates' J-133 'Assarain IV' with Alan Bartlett's Humphreys 11m 'Inn Spirit' not far behind. From the Crouch buoy it became a dead run and with the sea conditions kicked up by wind against tide it lead to some untidy gybes in the fleet and some spectacular broaches. Stephen Hendry's Sigma 33 'Scorcher' went for the safe option and didn't set a spinnaker, but boomed out their genoa.
At the Whitaker with the river widening at last Tony and Chuffy Merewether's Sunfast 3200 'Amazon' had reached the front of the fleet by sailing dead down-wind with a symmetric spinnaker while the J's continued to whizz from one side of the course to the other but were unable to keep up with those yachts sailing the rhumb line.
At the Gunfleet Spit buoy 'Amazon' led from 'Fay J' and then 'Inn Spirit' with the fleet setting code zeros or assys on a tight reach for the short distance across to West Sunk. With the tide now turning and starting to ebb it looked like a long foul tide beat back to Burnham. The leaders started to tack up the Sunk Sands with the breeze softening to 10 knots. 'Amazon' and 'Fay-J' were the first to head out for Barrow No.3 and with the wind freeing 'Amazon' set her code zero and 'Fay-J' their reacher, while class 1 continued sailing to windward close to the sands. By the Spitway the two leading boats had extended their lead over the bigger boats and after a short hook back to the Whitaker buoy, the fleet headed back into the river with the wind building back to a gusty 23 knots from the SSW. With a close fetch progress was good over the tide with 'Assarain' coming through 'Amazon' at the Buxey buoys to take the lead and line honours, followed by 'Amazon' and 'Fay-J' across the line not far behind.
At a prizegiving soon after the race in the Crouch Yacht Club, Tony and Chuffy Merewether's 'Amazon' was presented with the Houghton Cup winning overall and class 2, with 'Inn Spirit' winning class 1 and 'Tigo IV' class 3.