Royal Corinthian One Design mini-series at the RCYC, Burnham
by John Waples 22 Jun 2016 07:56 BST
11 June 2016
Royal Corinthian One Design mini-series © Roger Mant
Peter Willougby's impatience with the lack of wind led to his early withdrawal from the RCOD's first Super Saturday series before the class had even left the moorings. While Willougby settled in for a day watching the Royal pageantry, the remaining six RCODs drifted to the committee boat start line just in time for the first flick of wind to drift across the water.
Despite the fickle south easterly breeze, Edwin Buckley, the RCYC's exemplary race officer, managed to lay a successful course for the ensuing four races. And what a great day's racing it was. In the absence of Sue Law, her husband Ant took the helm of Coralie on her maiden outing of the year and he surprised himself by scooping three successive wins before being reminded in the last that racing rules do apply as he was squeezed off the start line by Justin Waples and Steve Rands in Cormorant. Coralie was one of three boats that had been craned in for the weekend, the others were Corella and Corindelle owned by Nick Oliver and Barry Lewis.. Most of the windward legs were decided by who could get the best lee bow to the mark and there was lots of close mark rounding which in an RCOD can lead to some very close and expensive incidents. John Waples in Corpo Santo won the last race to seal second place overall with the Waples/Rands duo coming third, followed by Lewis, Oliver and Will Wallis in Coram.
When helms and crew returned to the shore there was some well earned refreshment at the Shed Shindig, hosted by Rice and Cole in its boat yard. The fundraising event was a huge success with all 150 tickets sold out. The class president John Heathfield is still counting how much was raised and we look forward to sharing that figure with everybody that took part.
Next up is the regatta on the weekend of July 16th and 17th when we hope to have at least 10 boats on the start line.