2022 Noble Marine Lightning 368 Traveller's Trophy and Southern Championship at Up River Yacht Club
by Simon Hopkins 17 May 2022 05:49 BST
14-15 May 2022
It has been a long while since Up River YC had held a meeting in the warm months and Saturday training day was held in glorious sunny conditions. Unfortunately, the wind was a bit hit and miss, but the 6 visiting and 4 local boats that attended had a great day of start practice and learning how tides work.
All sessions were expertly coached by Simon Hopkins and Penny Yarwood in the safety boat, with Caroline Hollier on camera duty since a broken finger would rule her out of sailing for the weekend.
John Claridge also brought a new carbon mast he is trialling for a few people to test, which Robbie Claridge would use in Sunday's racing.
After the water had departed for the day, the fleet retired to the clubhouse in preparation for the highlights of the weekend, a small football match involving some Merseysiders in red, and the Eurovision Song Contest. Both ended to the satisfaction of the author!
Sunday dawned a complete contrast to Saturday with a cold easterly wind and rain showers throughout the day, but at least there was some wind (for now). With lots of yachts moored out on the water, the decision was to start at the club, race down river and complete three races back to back with the last race ending back up river at the clubhouse. One more visitor joined us and 11 boats took to the water.
Race 1 and the start was a battle for the north bank and Queen of the river, Penny Yarwood was soon away clear from the pack with Robbie Claridge, Ben Harris and Simon Hopkins in pursuit with what was to be about 9 million tacks all the way down river to Brandy Hole. Robbie eventually got past Penny, and Ben was holding off Simon until when clearing weed from his rudder he pulled it off completely, and had to stop to refit it, which allowed Jeremy Cooper, Duncan Cheshire and Tony Jacks to catch up. These four spent the rest of the race in a close battle. Up front, Robbie was sailing to a clear win, but on the last mark before the finish Penny rounded the wrong way. Simon being a nice guy told her and by the time she had unwound herself her sizeable lead for 2nd was now a couple of boat lengths. Drama was not over yet, as approaching the line Simon decided to put one more tack into the bank to get out of the tide, and when they met again caught Penny on starboard to sneak across the line for second.
Race 2 started immediately in the best breeze of the day and the fleet were once again short tacking up the bank to Stow post. Simon was early and had to loop round the pin end opening the door for Ben, Robbie, Penny and Duncan to be off the short line first. Not all was lost for Simon though because as he rounded the pin he was able to clear the sterns of the fleet and the clear air soon put him back into the fight at the front. The order at the first mark was Robbie, Penny, Simon and Ben, and these positions stayed steady throughout the race to the finish. Behind the top 4, Jeremy and Tony fought clear of the pack to reel Duncan in and eventually get through.
In Race 3 it then all changed. A rain shower came though and the wind dropped to nearly nothing. Eager to get things started, the race (drift) was soon under way and the fleet were pushed upwind more by the tide than any wind. Simon and Steve Hodgson soon found themselves out in front as they reached the turning mark to go back up river against the tide. This then became the painful part and in procession the fleet crept up the north bank on a dead run for the next hour to try to get back to the clubhouse finish. Simon kept his lead for a considerable time but Steve dropped back into the chasing pack and soon it was Robbie and Penny on his tail. Inevitably Penny got through both of them to sail away never to be caught, and with the wind behind and each boat covering the one in front, the whole fleet was soon inline astern along the bank. It was then about who took their chances in the rare puffs of breeze, and much to the dismay of Simon, both Robbie then Ben got past. To make his day end even worse, approaching the line, the wind filled in again and the chasing pack all surged past with our Chairman Bryan Westley making the most of the wind to surge through to 4th!
The final overall positions were Robbie Claridge, Penny Yarwood and Simon Hopkins all in Mk 3 boats, and Ben Harris deserves a credit for 4th place in one of the club Mk 1 Giles boats with an old Dacron sail.
The Noble Marine Travellers Trophy now moves on to Round 4 at Sutton in Ashfield SC on the 28th May.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | R1 | R2 | R3 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | 427 | Robbie Claridge | 1 | 1 | ‑2 | 2 |
| 2nd | 425 | Penny Yarwood | ‑3 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 3rd | 428 | Simon Hopkins | 2 | 3 | ‑7 | 5 |
| 4th | 342 | Ben Harris | ‑5 | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| 5th | 410 | Jeremy Cooper | 4 | 5 | ‑6 | 9 |
| 6th | 444 | Tony Jacks | ‑7 | 6 | 5 | 11 |
| 7th | 434 | Duncan Cheshire | 6 | 7 | ‑8 | 13 |
| 8th | 407 | Bryan Westley | ‑10 | 10 | 4 | 14 |
| 9th | 433 | John Butler | ‑9 | 8 | 9 | 17 |
| 10th | 402 | Steve Hodgeson | 8 | 9 | ‑11 | 17 |
| 11th | 404 | Harry Yarwood | ‑11 | 11 | 10 | 21 |