Birketts Decanter 2014 at Royal Harwich Yacht Club
by Matthew Rowe 29 Sep 2014 11:51 BST
23 September 2014
Birketts Decanter 2014 © Alan Shipperlee
On Thursday 25 September 2014, lawyers Birketts LLP ran their annual event for the Birketts Decanter, for guests from the shipping and logistics industry. This event is held at Royal Harwich Yacht Club in Ajaxes (23ft three person keelboats). The owners of the Ajax fleet donate the proceeds towards the Club's junior and youth training programme and last year bought two new training optimists. These Optimists can be seen in action here.
This year, we were lucky to have warm sunny weather with a good breeze from the west for six quick short races over two hours. Racing was close and places changed throughout, but despite the presence of insurers, claims handlers and shipping and employment lawyers there were no incidents, protests or injuries at work! The emphatic winner was Rob Cage from Travelers ably crewed by our own Graham Kershaw and Ajax owner John Williams. Most importantly however everyone came ashore exhilarated from two hours of hard sailing and a number of newcomers to sailing enjoyed helming their first races.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Boat Name | Owner/Skipper | Helm | Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | 14 | Thunderer | John Williams | Rob Cage (Travelers) | Graham Kershaw (Birketts) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 2 | 29 | Pegasus | James Skellorn | Katie Brooks (BAP) | Robin Smith (BAP) | 5 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 13 |
| 3 | 71 | Dionysius | Doug Sharp | Duncan Russell (Servest) | Matt Potter (Birketts) | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 16 |
| 4 | 20 | Gullimot | David Main | Sarah Wallace (Standard Club) | Henry Adams (Birketts) | 3 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 17 |
| 5 | 23 | Puffin | David Pearce | Bob Page (Port of Felixstowe) | Catherine Johnson (Birketts) | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 25 |
| 6 | 26 | Teal | Bob Tate | James Walters (Gray Page) | Brian Maeng (Birketts) | 7 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 27 |
| 7 | 34 | Sirius | Ken Howe | Andrew Craig Bennett (COSCO (UK)) | Alex Davey (Birketts) | DNS | DNS | DNS | 3 | 6 | 5 | 34 |
| 8 | 62 | Prometheus | Tim Archer | Annie O’Sullivan (Standard Club) | Duncan McGregor (Birketts) | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 35 |