3 Piers Race at Marconi Sailing Club

Pierce leads UKCRA series after 3 Piers Race

Marconi's Three Piers race taxed every skill in the sailing book on Sunday 15th July. The Met promised force 1 to 3 blowing from the SW or NW, so competitors with a choice of configurations chose the larger rigs and flew kites wherever possible for the 60-kilometre race from Osea Pier in the Blackwater River to Walton Pier and back.

Sailing a Stealth R, John Pierce, crewed by Sue Davies made all the right bets to take his second win in the four race series. This race is now a well-established event run to raise money for the Ciaran Trust.

At the start, two Thames barges flying full canvas caused an unusual difficulty as the 70+ entrants started downwind with kites flying in force 2 off Osea Pier by the Marconi Sailing Club. While the bulk of the fleet squeezed into a bottleneck to windward, and one who dared to go between them was caught on the anchor chains, Will Sunnucks powered off to an early lead alone well downwind.

Down the Blackwater, the fleet bore down the middle to exploit the ebbing tide, gybing with the variable puffs and trying to avoid holes that stopped first one part of the fleet then another as they approached Bradwell. Andy Webb played this game best in his Hurricane Sport.

To break the boredom of a long downwind leg, this year the organisers put a couple of right hand bends in between Bradwell and Colne Point, that forced competitors to lower their kites and beat instead.

At Colne Point the slow fleet sailing the Short Course turned round. Texel veteran Klass Pool, was the clear leader sailing a new Hobie FX single-hander with spinnaker to perfection. However on the return journey back up the Swale, the Dart 15s made up good ground. Paul Storer sailing in Sprint mode putting in a good result and local lass, Jenny Ball, using her knowledge of the river to best advantage, to collect the most silverware.

For the full course the rest of the fleet experienced a spectacular leg along the coast bearing increasingly NE. This started as a drifting run but ended as a high-speed close reach. The middle of the fleet had mainly lowered their kites on the wrong side, and so were unable to re-hoist. However a couple of daring Whitstable sailors took out a dozen places or more. Asymetric ace, Simon Reynolds did it maxed-out with kite twin trapezing off the rear beam, while Nick Dewhirst and Rob Guy sailed a razor-thin line between rival hazards just 50 yards offshore in less tide - point too high and capsize with kite or bear off and hit a groyne.

Unsurprisingly the biggest cats were the first to Walton, Rob White's original wide-beam Storm, being the first, follower by regular Dutch visitor, John de Vries and Will Sunnucks in Tornado Sports. However the wind steadily died as the fleet approached Bradwell, where the twin power plants again created their notorious black hole, into which once again the fleet sailed this year.

Trying to avoid this peril, John de Vries sailed North into the Colne River, where he suffered an alternative penatly - the ignominy of being dragged upstream by the gathering tide despite his big rig. Local knowledge paid off for Brightlingsea's Rob White who went on to take line honours in an unusually long six-hour race.

Former Hurricane class chairman, Ashley Machin, was unluckiest man of the day, as he led his flock into the Bradwell hole, where he was stuck for an hour and a half. Meanwhile his followers escaped one by one, two-sailed Rob Lawes from Whitstable being one of the later to arrive but the first to escape.

As the fleet tacked together back up the middle of the Blackwater with the growing tide it was near to impossible for the 20 foot Hurricane's and F 20 to shake off the shorter F 18 class. The mere 16 foot Spitfires performed spectacularly to take three of the top seven slots on handicap, while even Alan Grace managed 11th place despite his handicaps.

However when the results were counted on corrected time the overall winner was John Pierce, 0.8% ahead of Marconi's Tim Wallace in a standard Hurricane and 2.6% ahead of Dutch F 18 ace, Rico Capelle. Line Honours, Rob White was ultimately fourth, 3.9% behind. The final deciding event of the inaugural UKCRA series takes place at Whitstable on Saturday 22nd September, with John Pierce in the lead after three events.

Overall Results: