Contessa 32 Nationals at Royal London Yacht Club

English Rose wins the Contessa 32 nationals © Chris North

ENGLISH ROSE – FIRST TIME WINNER OF CONTESSA 32 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Ray Mitchell in his new boat, English Rose, won the Contessa 32 National Championships organised by the Royal London Yacht Club and sailed in the central Solent over three days 16-18 September. Second overall was Eldred Himsworth’s perennial bridesmaid, Drumbeat, with former class champions Blanco and Cosantes filling third and fourth.

As ever in this extremely competitive fleet, going into the last day the Championship was still entirely open.

The first race on Friday was scheduled to be at least four hours long – which proved challenging with the wind averaging 27 knots – but it did provide time for some real fight backs.

Blanco managed to establish a lead by about half way and then managed to stretch away from Drumbeat and Polar Star who were leading the chasers. Behind them a poor start for English Rose went from bad to worse when they tacked and got a riding turn on the jib sheet. Forced to drop the headsail to release the sheet they eventually rounded the windward mark in 10th position. With the tide in full ebb they gybed on to Port and sailed an inside course to the next mark rounding in 7th place. A long reach followed and English Rose continued to claw through the fleet. Cosantes dropped their kite early and English Rose managed to pass and round the next mark in 6th place. The next couple of legs were uneventful, and with the wind dropping to the mid 20 knot range those that changed up to a No 2 got a good 5 degrees of extra height. English Rose overtook Fresh Herring and Polar Star, eventually finishing 3rd behind Blanco and Drumbeat.

By the Saturday the winds had moderated, but still coming from NW they constantly shifted giving the race officer, Jamie Clark, a real headache in laying the bouys for two windward/leeward courses close to the mainland shore.

The first race started at 10.30 on a short line which resulted in some real crowding and aggressive barging from some of the front runners. But the constantly shifting winds certainly produced some surprising positions at the marks. In this race Robin Holland’s Corafin rounded the top marks in 3rd, but ended the race in 7th. Chris North’s Andaxi distinguished themselves with a spectacular spinnaker wrap which put them plum last – before a steady fight back to regain five places and finish 12th. At the front, despite the constant shifts, Seb Gardner’s Polar Star, Drumbeat, Blanco and English Rose slowly established themselves at the front.

The second race repeated the pattern – Andaxi surprised the fleet this time by sailing around the outside of Blanco, Polar Star and others to round the top mark in 3rd , only to spinnaker straight into a hole and end up 10th , while English Rose, Blanco, Drumbeat and Cosantes read the shifts and worked themselves through to the front. Winner of the morning race, Polar Star, finished 11th and new boys in the fleet, Mark Oliver’s Connie came in 6th. It was all a bit of a lottery.

Sunday dawned as a beautiful sunny day – but with virtually no wind. Two points separated the top three boats – all still to play for. The race got away on time in winds of about 5 knots and the prospects of a building Solent tide. Drumbeat fatally compromised their overall chances by being forced OCS by Blanco and Andaxi, while Cosantes showed their usual extraordinary boat speed off the line in no wind.

From the second row, English Rose could see a line of breeze running straight down the middle of the course but it was a good 10 minutes before they had pulled ahead of Shardik enough to tack off on to Port. This paid off for them and they eventually rounded Deck, the windward mark, in 2nd place, just behind Cosantes, with Blanco and Fresh Herring in contention. On the slow run down to Seascope English Rose sailed the angles, gibing twice and just crossing Cosantes bow to round ahead of her and headed off on Starboard tack. Cosantes were flying and quickly overhauled English Rose to leeward but English Rose tacked onto port, sailed to the starboard lay line and rounded the mark a good 150 yard ahead of Cosantes, still followed by Blanco, Fresh Herring, Wild Thyme and Andaxi.

The final leg was a dead run against the tide and as the leaders rounded, the wind died off completely and the entire fleet bunched up at the mark. As this happened, Blanco and Fresh Herring, covering each other, misjudged the approach and were swept past the mark as the wind died. Wild Thyme, Andaxi, Polar Star and Drumbeat crept round, hoisted their kites – and the whole fleet kedged up to await some wind.

After about half an hour a small line of breeze allowed the fleet to lift the anchors and start to gain over the tide. What followed were occasional puffs allowing the boats to move forward a few yards at a time before the wind finally steadied at about 6 knots and allowed English Rose to run out the winner of a shortened course, followed by Cosantes, Polar Star, Wild Thyme, Drumbeat and Andaxi.

The Royal London Yacht Club proved perfect social hosts with a Bar-B-Q on the Friday and a formal dinner on Saturday, and the race selection and management provided good racing in some very challenging conditions.

Overall Results: