Summer Series at Royal Temple Yacht Club - Race 1
by Peter Jackson 16 Jun 20:52 BST
15 June 2025
A running start was set by OOD Simon Northrop in 9-13 knots, leading to a scrum at the North Quern Buoy before a short fetch to Stonar and long run North East to the Broadstairs Knoll buoy off Viking Bay.
Despite a waypoint list with 60 race marks Simon wasn't tempted to set a reaching course to suit his Melges 24 Lock Stock and had to zig zagged against the tide as the 42ft Assassin led the way to Broadstairs with her young trainee crew. But Simon and team were now getting the hang of their ex Richard Matthews Melges and found just enough wind to keep it in touch and ahead of the chasing pack.
The long beat back to Stonar was with the tide, keeping the whole fleet close. Assassin and the Modified Cork 1720 Flying Pig, both looking good for time, over-stood the mark taking them out of contention. Three short reaches followed, which DID suit Lock Stock's asymmetric kite. She now pulled away from the bunch, who were still having fun at the kite drop marks.
Guest rock star Mike Brand, now helming the X332 Stiletto with Paul Woodward away, had been well placed before the crew failed to get the jib up the head-foil or the kite down at the first drop.
Mike fought back and pulled Stiletto back into the main bunch on the long beat, but in the second scrummage of the day after the next fetch to Channel Marker 4 Peter Pearson on the HOD 35 Buccaneer II was on the outside and Peter gave Stiletto a hard luff. Mike couldn't respond in time to so had to do penalty turn, loosing all he'd gained.
That kerfuffle brought Nick Rawbone's 34.7 Warrior, sailed on the day by Paul Glover and Peter Giffin, back close and into contention. Assassin took line honours but Lock Stock finished within 10 minutes to save her time for the win. Rating more than 13 ticks lower than Buccaneer and 9 below the 1720, Warrior was close enough to beat them both on corrected time, by less than a minute.
Indeed places 2 to 5 corrected to within 2 minutes, Flying Pig just 8 seconds behind Buccaneer. Stiletto was a further 1 minute 20secs adrift before a gap to the X-99 Expedite and J97 Jura,
IRC results:
1st Lock Stock
2nd Warrior
3rd Buccaneer II
4th Flying Pig
5th Assassin
6th Stiletto
7th Expedite
8th Jura