Crouch Yacht Club Croach Race
by Phillip Harbott 11 May 2015 00:14 BST
10 May 2015
Crouch YC Croach Race © Phillip Harbott
The Crouch Yacht Club ran its Croach Race today, which rounds Roach and Short Pole Reach, but gives sailors the option to choose which order to take the course. Duncan Haley in his SJ320 Double Trouble and Paul Trueman in his X37 Exile were the two starters. Both opted to go down river to Roach first, making the most of the last of the ebb tide.
With seconds to go to the starting gun, Double Trouble found themselves very nearly OCS and bore away sharply down the line do get a bit more up river. Exile were fully powered up and heading for the line. On the gun Double Trouble bore away and started, but Exile were just behind, going quickly. The boats reached down under white sail, and then as it freed as the boats bore away past the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, Duncan Haley and his crew set their red and blue asymmetric spinnaker. They then stretched ahead of Exile, and entered the Roach and hardened up to get to Roach buoy first. Exile got close to Double Trouble on the beat, and got ahead, with Duncan having to duck Paul Trueman's Exile. However, he got ahead on the next tack, and Exile chased them hard, and on the run out Double Trouble again set a spinnaker, this time their AP and Exile, short handed, ran down under goose winged genoa.
Just before Branklet on the way out of the Roach, Exile touched the mud, but sailed off straight away by bearing away. Coming up river in view of the Club, Double Trouble were still ahead, and remained so all the way to Short Pole Reach and most of the way back to finish. However, Exile sailed underneath them to get ahead just off Creeksea, and stayed ahead to take line honours. However, Double Trouble were only just over a minute behind, so saved their time, winning by a couple of minutes.