Spring Series at Royal Temple Yacht Club - Day 3
by Peter Jackson & Paul Woodward 26 May 15:36 BST
25 May 2025
Two races were sailed in a boisterous westerly of 20+ knots. The first was a beat past the river Stour, a reach through Sandwich Bay off the Royal St Georges Gold Club to Deal, and back. The second was a short round-the-cans race.
Anthony & Mark Dale's Corby 26 Bad Boys led away the cruising class from John & Michelle Stoneley's Sun Odyssey 37 Pippy. Peter & Alex Jackson's Stimpson 42 Assassin quickly powered away in class 1. Simon Northrop's Melges 24 Lock Stock was OCS and the chase was led by John Barrett & Paul Woodwards X362 Stiletto with Pearson et al's HOD 35 Buccaneer II, rating 2 points lower, stuck to them like glue.
The class 1 sports boats, let by Martin Law's Cork 1720 Flying Pig, couldn't hold their asymmetric kites on either reach and slipped back to fight it out with Nick Rawbone's First 34.7 Warrior. Assassin turned a mile ahead at Deal, holding her time, but with a trainee crew didn't fly a kite on the last two legs to the finish, getting line honours but letting the chasing bunch close up.
Stiletto flew a Code 0 but Buccaneer's symmetrical kite was the right choice, crossing second by 40 seconds. Flying Pig flew in to correct just a minute behind Stiletto and 15 seconds ahead of Assassin. Less then 2 minutes separated the first four, and Lock Stock romped in to correct just another 66 seconds behind.
It was close racing all round as in the smaller cruising class the 37 passed the Corby 26 on the power reaches to also win by a close margin, just 31 seconds, with the UFO 31 Manana a distant third. With a depleted fleet in race 2 the same two were neck and neck for the lead, this time Bad Boys getting line honours by two seconds, but by three minutes on corrected time.
In Class 1 Assassin didn't race and Buccaneer led Stiletto to mark 1 chased again by Flying Pig, Warrior and Lock Stock. Now with a run in the course instead of close reaches the sports boats still couldn't stretch their legs.
Buccaneer took line honours only to find she's been OCS! Stiletto then finally got a win, correcting 4 minutes ahead of Warrior with Flying Pig another 20 seconds back. Gary Walters J97 Jura finally got in on the act with fourth ahead of Simon Northrop's Melges, still waiting for that ideal broad reach.
IRC top four in Race 4:
1st Buccaneer II
2nd Stiletto
3rd Flying Pig
4th Assassin
Race 5:
1st Stiletto
2nd Warrior
3rd Flying Pig
4th Jura