2018 Bottle Boat Championship at Waldringfield Sailing Club
by Roger Stollery 10 Sep 2018 15:40 BST
2 September 2018
A good start by the whole fleet during the 2018 Bottle Boat Championship at Waldringfield © Roger Stollery
Sunshine and a sea breeze gave perfect, but challenging conditions with a beat against the tide all day as part of the windward/leeward course set by Race Officer, Roger Stollery. Local sailor, Matthew Lake, won this championship by just one point at his 12th attempt, with well set new sails allowing him to compete at the front of the fleet with fellow Wayfarer sailor and 2017 champion, Mike Pert.
These one design BOTTLE boats were fast enough to beat the incoming neaps tide and gave very close racing for the 20 races and provided a fantastic spectacle for the crowd of family supporters and onlookers alike. Although 16 entries were received, problems caused by the closure of the M25 reduced the number sailing to 13.
After the group photograph, racing got underway just as the tide was at its lowest the beach at its muddyist, which the most junior entries enjoyed the most!
Bernard Kufluk started well by winning 3 out of the first 4 races, only losing to Mike Pert in Race 3. It was then Matthew Lake's turn at the front of the fleet, winning a hat-trick of races to take him to the top of the lunchtime leaderboard with 9 points, followed by Bernard with 12 and Mike with 14.
As the tide came in, the course was reset downriver closer to the beach to avoid crabber's fishing lines. A couple of moored dinghies provided an obstruction on a course, which allowed some difficult strategic decisions to be made on the approach to the windward mark.
Matthew won Race 7, but then let Mike win Race 8 before returning to the top of the podium for Race 9. He built up a massive lead over 2nd placed yacht sailor, Anthony Mason and in 4th place young Topper sailor Jos Glen-Gowing who were enjoying their first radio sailing event. The two top boats enjoyed Race 10, with Matthew winning, but Bernard reversed the order to win Race 11. Mike won Race 12 with Bernard 2nd and let Matthew win Race 13 with Bernard again 2nd. Bernard got his own back by winning Races 14 and 15, before allowing Mike to win the next race.
Race 17 became a match race and close to the finish Mike, who is leading, tacked off the shore first. Matthew stood on and risked going ashore, but it paid off as when he tacked onto starboard he was able to put Mike about and take the lead to the finish. WSC Commodore, Ian Videlo, who borrowed a boat was 3rd and young George Moss, also radio sailing for the first time was 4th. 8 year old Oliver Stollery got a good start in Race 18 and was able to take 2nd place following Bernard to the finish. He did even better in Race 19 to win from Mike and Bernard. In the final race ex-BOTTLE bottle boat champion and top dinghy sailor, Stephen Videlo also borrowed a boat and showed that he had lost none of his radio sailing expertise.
Everyone was quite delighted that Matthew had won the championship as he had struggled in previous years.
WSC Commodore Ian Videlo presented the senior and junior championship trophies and the prizes and thanked the Stollery family team for organising and staffing the event.
Overall Results:
1st Matthew Lake (WSC) 39pts
2nd Bernard Kufluk (WSC) 40pts
3rd Mike Pert (WSC) 45pts
4th Noel Fraser (WSC) 68pts
5th Alan Viney (GMYC) 80pts
6th Anthony Mason (WSC) 83pts
7th Oliver Stollery (GMYC) (Jr) 94pts
8th Nathan Stollery (GMYC) (Jr) 132pts
9th George Moss (WSC) (Jr) 140pts
10th Jos Glen-Gowing (Jr) 159pts
11th Dot Fraser (WSC) 164pts
12th John Fish (WSC)
13th Jonathan Fish (WSC)