Craftinsure Merlin Rocket Silver Tiller Round 16 at Shoreham Sailing Club

Shoreham Merlin Rocket Open © Warwick Baker / www.warwickpics.com

Shoreham Merlin Rocket Open © Warwick Baker / www.warwickpics.com

The amazing circus that is the Merlin Rocket Silver Tiller Series turned up at Shoreham for some 'Real Sea Sailing' on the weekend of August 3rd and 4th.

This series, sponsored by Craftinsure, is highly competitive and with only two weeks to go to the National Championships at Looe many sailors were keen to test out their open water skills against the best sailors in the country. Unfortunately it is also championship season so there were a few top names missing because they were away trying to clean up some in some other classes that are easier to win in!

Three races were scheduled for each day and on Saturday there was nice force 2 to 3 breeze from the south east. The race officer, Peter Bennett, said that he was planning to keep the races short and, sure enough the first race was extremely short. Just one lap of about 20 minutes. The fleet had to contend with a very strong spring tide, the current was pushing the fleet over the line and on the second start, after one general recall, Peter Bennett said that the entire fleet except for two boats were OCS. So he disqualified the entire fleet except for those two boats!

This rather unconventional approach is arguably fairer than having a general recalling and just disqualifying the few boats that may be identified. A strong argument for using the U flag I think. The two boats who started correctly were local stalwarts of the class Richard Bramley and Tony Cheal in "Brambles' and the beautifully restored wooden boat of Jonty Freeman and Rupert Smith, this boat has been lovingly restored by it's original builder John Freeman, Jonty's dad.

Anyway the second race got under way in in much more normal manner and the lead was soon occupied by Christian Birrell and Sam Brearey who dominated the weekend. It wasn't a walk over for them though, it was a close tactical race for two laps with the strong current and and shifting wind which was becoming increasingly fitful until, on the third lap it died away to almost flat calm and many boats couldn't stem the current. Christian and Sam just made the finish of the shortened course within the time limit and Andy (Taxi) Davis with Pippa Kilsby in second very nearly got swept past the committee boat but they found just enough wind to claim their position.

The sailing instructions specified that we all had 20 minutes after the first boat to finish and Pat and Jilly Blake in third looked to be disappointed until they found just enough breeze to cross the line with 20 seconds to spare! Everyone else was timed out. So it was a subdued fleet that returned to the club for an excellent evening of lasagne and the traditional egg throwing competition to contemplate the extraordinary day that meant that everyone had used their discard and only 5 boats had a result at all.

Sunday looked a lot more hopeful and four races were scheduled in an easterly force 2 to 3 breeze and with less current in the morning. The courses were quite small, at least by traditional Shoreham standards, with four laps of the 'sausage triangle' completed in less than an hour giving really close racing all through the fleet. There was so much place changing in the nip and tuck of the very tactical racing that your corespondent couldn't possibly recount every twist and turn but notably Christian Birrell and Sam Brearey managed to come out on top - winning every race! Simon and Ally Potts had a good day, starting off with a second and never being out of the top few.

Shoreham Merlin Rocket Open - photo © Warwick Baker / www.warwickpics.com

Ian Sharps was sailing with Alex Warren and they had too had a good day with two second places. Another boat that was always near the front was Fran Gifford who was sailing with Chris Kilsby in 'Hot Totty'. However it was 'Taxi' Davis and Pippa Kilsby who claimed the second place overall. They too were always fighting it out near the front on Sunday but their second place on Saturday gave them a massive points lead over the others. Pat and Jilly got the Silver fleet award and John Cooper with Becci Wigley won the Bronze mugs. It was good to see the local ace marine photographer Warwick Baker out in his launch to document what was another epic weekend of 'real sea sailing' even if it was quite unusual. Definitely one to remember.

Overall Results: