HMS St.Mathew Cup 2024 at the Royal Burnham Yacht Club
by Petru Balau 4 Sep 2024 07:01 BST
1 September 2024
The Burnham Sailing Club team won the 2024 edition of the HMS St.Mathew Cup, on the Sunday after Burnham Week 2024, with sunshine and the upper Crouch river making a perfect backdrop to the highly competitive race.
In 1940 the Admiralty requisitioned part of the Royal Burnham Yacht Club's premises to house administrative staff for crews sent to man the Coastal Force boats under the command of Captain Dane RN, while the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club was taken over to accommodate the boys of the Training Ship Exmouth.
Later, the Royal Maritime Training Centre was transferred from Dartmouth to Burnham and commissioned as HMS St.Mathew under the command of Captain Dane, who, along with his staff, took over the Royal Burnham Yacht Club, while the Navy personnel in charge of landing craft, the Coastal Forces crews and the WRNS were all billeted around the town, with the Marines at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club and their officers at Creeksea Place and Crouch Yacht Club.
In appreciation of the cooperation between the town, yacht clubs and the personnel of HMS St.
Mathew, Captain Dane and his officers presented the Town Council with a trophy to be known as the HMS ST.Mathew Cup and be raced annually, with clubs providing one design boats to allow all clubs to compete.
Since 2019 the event is scheduled on the Sunday after the Burnham Week Trophy Day, with Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, Royal Burnham Sailing Club and Burnham Sailing Club competing, while Creeksea Sailing Club joined the event in 2023.
With 8 boats per team, RS Elites, 707, Squibs, Royal Corinthian One Design, Royal Burnham One Design, Laser/ILCA 6, Phantom and Blaze, the race, organized by Royal Burnham Yacht Club, started eastward from the club start line, up to Fairway 3, then up the river for two laps around Cliff and Canewdon and back to the RBYC line and saw Nick Tolhurst, sailing on the RCYC Blaze lead almost end to end, being overtaken by the first RS Elite only on the second downwind leg to Canewdon.
Overall, the youthful BSC team found a bit more energy than their counterparts, after the 8 days of Burnham Week sailing, and won the 2024 edition of HMS St.Mathew Cup, with the RCYC team coming in close second.
Even from the first editions the event was highly competitive, with the sailors taking pride in representing their clubs, with Charlie Matthews, team captain for the winning club, Blaze East Coast champion and 3rd in the Blaze National Championship, stating: "This is the one I want to win the most".