EAORA Offshore Regatta
by Tony Merewether 3 Jul 2013 14:23 BST
27-30 June 2013
The first EAORA Offshore Regatta took place from 27th to 30th June over a triangular course around the southern North Sea. The three races sponsored by Fox's Chandlery and Outdoor covered 200 miles from Harwich to Ramsgate to Ostend to Harwich, with a lay day in Ostend.
The first race of the regatta was the Walker Challenge Cup race from Harwich to Ramsgate, started in a light north-westerly which after a very slow and difficult cross-tide leg to the Longsand Head backed to the south-west, making it a long and shifty beat, mainly against the tide all the way to Ramsgate. The fleet became very spread out with numerous holes in the wind in the lee of North Foreland with the smaller boats taking nearly 13 hours to reach the finish. Richard Matthews' new HH42 Oystercatcher XXX took line honours and saved her time by nearly half an hour, from Iain Kirkpatrick's X-37 Fatjax and Stuart Galloway's Elan 40 Titian. The Royal Temple Yacht Club manned their starting hut for the finish and start the next morning.
After another early start from Ramsgate it was again a light north-westerly downwind start with Geoff Payne's J-92 Jabberwock leading the way until Oystercatcher XXX took the lead. Most of the fleet gybed on a big south-westerly shift to cross the shipping lanes before the wind increased enabling the course to be sailed direct to Ostend. Oystercatcher XXX took line honours, but with the tide turning fair the fleet bunched up behind all finishing in around 9 hours. The winner of the Graham Wallis Trophy was Stan Fenton and Nigel Cook's J-105 Fay-Jay, followed by Jabberwock and in third place Tony and Chuffy Merewether's Sun Fast 3200 Amazon.
Ostend is always a good place for a lay day and this was no exception, with a party arranged in the 'Cosy Corner' on the Friday evening which went on well into the early hours, with time to recover before the prizegiving at the Royal North Sea Yacht Club the next evening followed by a pontoon party by the Chairman's yacht Amazon.
Early on Sunday morning, with a starting line just outside Ostend harbour, the fleet started in a light south-westerly with a mixture of genoa, assy or code zeros set, depending on their heading, making for a fast crossing. With the wind first veering then increasing and eventually backing Fay-J made her move over a half hour period coming through to win the Cannonball trophy from Amazon and Titian
At the prizegiving at the Haven ports Yacht Club the overall winner under IRC was Stan Fenton and Nigel Cook's Fay-J, second was Tony and Chuffy Merewether's Amazon and third Iain Kirkpatrick's Fatjax. The series was also scored under NHC with the winner again Fay-J, then Amazon then Paul and Jan Brant's Sun Fast 3200 Ninjod, who were sailing only two up and also won the two-handed trophy.
A big thank you to Race Officer Brian Bolton with his wife Wendy who provided their yacht Blue Horizon as the committee boat, assisted by Michael Wallis and Ray King, also to our sponsors Fox's Chandlery and Outdoor.