Martello Race at Pevensey Bay Sailing Club

Pevensey Bay Sailing Club Martello Race © Colin Strain

Pevensey Bay Sailing Club recently hosted its annual long distance event, the Martello Race.

The Martello Race is a prestigious 30-mile sprint taking in three sailing clubs on the south coast. Starting and finishing at the host club, Pevensey Bay, the course takes in the historic Martello towers at Eastbourne and Bexhill.

On the morning of the race, crews of the 18 competing boats nervously looked out from the beachside terrace at Pevensey Bay onto a glassy sea with barely a breath of wind. Luckily the top quality canteen at PBSC was able to provide ample coffee and bacon sandwiches on the terrace overlooking the beach.

A delay of an hour gave the sailors a chance to pack extra food and water, as everyone was expecting a long day on the water. Just before the start a nice force 3-4 breeze developed and the fast fleet romped off upwind towards Eastbourne, followed an hour later by the catamarans.

At the first turning mark at Eastbourne the fleet was lead by Chris Clarke, the PBSC Sailing Secretary in his Blaze. Unfortunately Chris fell back as his rudder fell off – luckily the safety boat was there to help him out. With the top boats all overstepping the mark, the fleet compressed and there was a close race downwind back to Pevensey. Light air specialists such as Greg Fowler in a Laser and Greg Cox in a Laser 2000 made significant gains as the fleet sailed back past Pevensey Bay Sailing Club.

As the fleet sailed round Pevensey Bay the course tightened and a relaxed downwind potter turned into a tight reach – no time to eat sandwiches now! The asymmetrics and Spitfires gained significantly and whoops of "Yee Ha" could be heard reverberating round the course as the competitors surfed madly off the increasingly large waves near Bexhill.

The fleet was safely shepherded around the Bexhill mark by the excellent safety cover, and began the long upwind slog back to Pevensey. By this time, strong winds and big waves meant that high levels of fitness and good technique paid off significantly.

Three and a half hours after the start, the tired but happy competitors crossed the finish line at Pevensey Bay. Winners James and Tom O'Leary were presented with a beautiful trophy, hand carved in wood in the likeness of a Martello tower, and thanked the club for a well organised event with superb safety boat cover.

The competitors also appreciated the camping facilities for the night before and high quality catering at the club, looking forward to coming back to Pevensey to compete in the Martello Race in 2013.

Overall Results:

1st James O'Leary
2nd Paul Limpus
3rd Nigel Fish
4th Gary Kinch
5th Greg Cox
6th Chris Clarke
7th Greg Fowler
8th Gary Pearson
9th Karen Hilder
10th Matt Fowler