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Erith
Yacht Club Racing results
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Hansen Cup
- Sunday 14th October
The Hansen
Cup had not been sailed so was re-scheduled for Sunday 14th October.
An excellent entry of 11 boats turned up. There was a very light
Southerly wind. Race Officer Bas Elms set a very testing course,
upriver to the Jenningtree buoy to starboard, across to the lighter
on the Essex shore, to starboard, round the lighter off Erith pier
to starboard then back to the lighter on the Essex shore then round
the Erith Pier lighter to port and back to the Club line. The race
was held on the last couple of hours of the flood tide, so to make
any progress against the wind and tide on the downriver legs it
was essential to find the back eddies.
The wind
was very light at the start and some yachts had difficulty holding
themselves below the line. After the start, downwind to the first
mark spinnakers and cruising chutes came out, but with through the
water speeds of less than 1kn they made a colourful display but
didn't help much and the fleet was fairly well bunched as the tide
carried it towards the buoy. Panjandrum, Fairtrade (Van de Stat
34) and Harmony (Jenneau Melody) were at the head of the fleet rounding
the mark but the tide carried everyone upriver. Loucha (Meridian
9.5) had dropped to the back of the fleet (explained later for the
unusual reason that the crew was asleep on all the big sails!).
Seeing the leading boats carried past the buoy Act (Intro 22) managed
to creep in much closer to it and gain a few places. As the fastest
boat in the fleet Panjandrum started to pull away to windward over
the tide. Hemmed in behind Bolero (Rustler 31) and Harmony Marlin
(Tarentelle 27) crept close inshore and was fortunate to find a
back eddy there which carried her down to the next mark crossing
tacks with Panjandrum as she arrived there. The rest of the fleet
followed close inshore too the next big challenge being the decision
on when to duck out of the eddy and cross the river to the lighter
on the Kent shore. Panjandrum was first round followed by Marlin
with C-Harp (Etap 30) and Fairtrade closing fast. On the second
lap it was possible to cross the river sooner as the weakening flood
meant a back eddy had started very close to the Kent shore which
could be used to get round the last mark. Panjandrum took line honours
with Marlin, Fairtrade and C-Harp following behind but Marlin's
good fortune with the tide meant she took the race on handicap.
Special credit to Farfallina (Contessa 28) and Crystal Wave (Westerly
25) racing for the first time Crystal Wave doggedly hanging on to
finish the course despite being well behind the faster boats.
Results
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Graham
Taylor Singlehanded Trophy Sunday 30th September
Results
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Diamond
Race 6 Thursday 09th August
The sixth
race in the diamond evening series took place on the 9th August.
The entries were a little depleted due to a number of yachts being
away on holiday. Winds were light from the NE. The course was up
to the barge off the Town causeway, to starboard, Jenningtree buoy
to starboard then down to the measured mile mark in Long reach and
back to the Club line. Marlin (Tarentelle 27) got the best start,
Harmony (Jenneau Melody) close behind powered past her and was first
round the barge. Snuggles (Pegasus 700) was keeping up well despite
being at a disadvantage only being able to set a small jib. A slow
tack by Harmony allowed Marlin to slip back into the lead and carry
the tide up towards the Jenningtree. Harmony powered past again
but rounding the mark Marlin cheekily slipped between her and the
buoy moving back into the lead again. The leg back against the tide
was a challenge, to make over the tide it was necessary to hug the
Essex shore, but then trying to round the point you come into the
wind shadow of the Cleanaway building. Harmony powered past and
reached the point well ahead where, stemming the tide, she kindly
stopped and waited for Marlin to catch up. Whereupon Marlin stopped
as well and waited for Snuggles to catch up. The three yachts spent
sometime poking their bows round the point and getting nowhere till
eventually Harmony picked up some wind from somewhere and crept
away over the tide leaving Marlin's crew cursing short skippers
with tall masts . Race Officer Bas Elmes shortened the course so
Harmony just had to creep across the river to take line honours.
A little while later Marlin was able to pick up enough wind to finish
too but Harmony had easily taken the race on handicap. With two
races to go this moves her up from 8th to 5th place in the series.
There was never enough wind for Snuggles and her small jib and she
was forced to retire but with previous series leader Fairtrade missing
the race this moves her up into the series lead.
Results
Series positions
so far
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Diamond
Race 4 Thursday 12th July
Five boats
came to the starting line for the fourth race in the Diamond evening
series. Wind was moderate to fresh from the West but quite flukey
under the black clouds that were passing over. Race Office Bas elms
set a course, upriver from the Club line into Erith Reach and round
the Jenning tree buoy to starboard, down river and round the lighter
moored off the end or Erith Causeway, back round the Jenningtree
buoy across to the lighter on the Essex shore and back to the Club.
Just before
the gun went Fairtrade (Van de Stat 34) came down the line on starboard
tack catching Marlin (Tarentelle
27) on port at the Kent end of the line. Marlin luffed almost head
to wind (hoping Fairtrade would tack for the start) and was just
able to scrape round Fairtrade's stern. Meanwhile the gun went and
further along the line towards the Essex shore Jana
Ina (Tarentelle 27) crossed the line making the best start.
Marlin and Fairtrade followed with Fairtrade soon managing to overhaul
Marlin. Snuggles (Pegasus 700) , who had changed headsails just
before the start and Aardvark (Leisure 17) we not far behind. Jana
Ina's advantage from her good start was lost as she had to put in
a tack to clear the cleanaway jetty so Fairtrade followed by Marlin
were first into Erith reach then round the Jenningtree buoy. The
flood tide was just setting in with a set of about 1/2 kn all across
the river so there was little tide cheating advantage to be gained
and all the yachts sailed a direct course between the marks. Fairtrade
pulled steadily ahead for the rest of the race taking line honours.
Marlin and Jana Ina had an exciting one design battle for the rest
of race, Marlin just holding her slight advantage till the end and
crossing the line just 24 seconds ahead. Aardvark, the slowest boat
in the race battled gamely on finishing the race although a little
behind the rest of the fleet well done Terry. On handicap Fairtrade
had pulled far enough ahead to take the win. On the overall positions
in the series (without discards considered) Fairtrade now takes
the lead one point ahead of Snuggles
Results
Series positions
so far
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Foot
Mitchell Race 1 Sunday 17th June
Results
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3rd
June 2007 - London River Travellers Trophy - First Leg Erith Yacht
Club
| Weather: |
Sunny
and just about the right wind |
| Sun
cream: |
Recommended |
| Temperature |
25
degrees Celsius |
| Wind:
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East-South
Easterly 8 knots increasing to 12 knots |
| Tide
in Erith: |
High
water at 14.45 |
| Race
Officer briefing |
11.15 |
| Start
of the race: |
12.40 |
| Results
announcement ceremony: |
16.10 |
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What
a fantastic day. In total 32 dinghies turned up (four dinghies
more than last year) in the first big event of the season
of the Erith Yacht Club. Eight teams were from Erith and nine
teams from Greenwich. Erith Yacht Club distinguished itself
as the club with the highest number of juniors. Ten out of
twelve juniors were from Erith. The race was sailed under
ideal weather conditions.
Competitors
registered at the club ship with Sandi Charstone. As already
in other occasions some Bosun sailors did not remember their
sail number making it more complicated for the race officers
to work out the final results. Some dinghies did not even
had a sail number.
At
11.15 Race Officer, Graham Campbell, held the usual briefing
on the deck of the club ship Folgefonn. Key race officers
were introduced and the course to sail explained, i.e. two
times one triangle and one sausage around three big orange
inflatable buoys and one final beat. The position of the course
was a bit unusual due to the wind coming from ESE. The leeward
was decided to be near the green storages on the North side
of the river in a place called Coldharbour. The windward mark
was laid near the mooring of Kanska in the middle of the EYC
mooring line. The gybe mark was easterly of Coldharbour.
The
race was started from the newly refurbished committee boat
Harvester. For more than a year John Edmonds and Graham Campbell
did an excellent job and now the Erith Yacht Club has a dedicated
committee boat. The race was started 10 minutes late due to
the anchor not being heavy enough, but quickly a new anchor
was installed and Graham Campbell was finally able to anchor
and position Harvester in some way on the start line. The
start line that resulted was diagonal to the tide, nearly
right angle to the wind and was actually quite well laid.
For many dinghies cruising around the start line was already
quite tricky due to the tidal stream. One of the MRX dinghies
snagged the anchor line of the committee boat, but untangled
itself quite quickly.
Finally
the starting sequence started. Even in the last minute before
the start many boats were still on the course side. Graham
Campbell did hesitate to display the X flag with a sound signal
and call back two boats, which were undoubtedly on the course
side at the start. The fleet split in two groups according
to their tack. The better tactic appeared to be to sail on
port tack as these quickly crossed the river and moved into
more favourable sheltered water. For some heavier dinghies
getting to the start line was already too difficult due to
the wind not being sufficient for them and had to retire.
The
fastest boat sailed the course in approximately 60 minutes
and the slowest boats in approximately 110 minutes. For good
reasons the Erith Yacht Club proudly calls itself the finest
sailing waters in the tidal Thames.
One
passing gas tanker disturbed two Laser dinghies, but competitors
were told of his arrival in advance at the briefing. The huge
gas tanker hooted five times. EYC commodore afterwards told
off the two sailors. The remaining part of the race went on
with nothing particular to mention, except for the Osprey
dinghy that touched a mark right under the vigilant eyes of
the race officers, but sailors very honestly took promptly
the penalty by making one turn as required by the racing rules.
At
the end the race committee boat was one of the last boats
to return ashore while competitors relaxed at the licensed
bar or had a quick shower in the new toilet block. Thanks
to several helping club members who turned up for the day
sailing guests were well looked after. The arrival times were
quickly typed into the computer and the decoding of a few
sail numbers not matching with the application forms started.
Race officers had to sort also a protest from a Bosun competitor
who claimed to have arrived before another Bosun dinghy. After
having heard the representative of the other Bosun boat who
had no witnesses to bring, who had not taken note of who was
ahead and behind at the finish line and after having consulted
the arrival order at the first triangle and after the first
sausage, the protestee was scored DNF, which means did not
finish, to the satisfaction of the protestor. Sometimes it
is a bit tricky to remember to sail one triangle, one sausage,
one triangle, one sausage and a final beat in all the excitement.
Finally
at 16.10 the result announcement ceremony took place. Adrian
Reeves, commodore of the EYC, read the results, shook everybody's
hand and thanked all participants and club member who helped
throughout the day. It was a very nice end of the day that
the helm of the winner team took the word and thanked the
club for the excellent organisation of the event and everybody
for their contribution. He also thanked the Lord for the excellent
weather and the ideal sailing conditions.
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Race
Officers
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| Race
Officer ashore: |
Baz
Elmes |
| Committee
boat: |
Harvester |
| Race
Officer afloat: |
Graham
Campbell |
| Race
Officers afloat: |
Hendrik
Feddersen - Time, gunner recording and VHF radio.
Richard Banner - Flags
Sandi Charstone - Spotting, recording and photos
John Edmonds - Skipper |
| Safety
boats: |
Greenwich
Yacht Club: Jim and Pete
Thamesmead YMCA: Dudley Davies, Alan Cooper and Bert Cowley
Erith Yacht Club: Peter Dornan and Rachel Sheridan |
| Social: |
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| Bar: |
Iain
Buckland, Sarah Taylor, Val Torregiani and Ann Finck |
| Packed
lunches: |
Darren
Leigh |
| Officer
of the day: |
Steve
Soutar
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| See
you all numerous in Erith at the next event as per our sailing
programme. Good bye.
Hendrik
Feddersen, EYC race officer.
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Results
of First Leg at EYC Photo
Selection
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Diamond
Race 1 Thursday 31st May
The first
race of the Diamond Evening series took place with a good entry
of 7 yachts. The wind was light south easterly, the course down
to the first green buoy off Greenhithe and back. Snuggles and Marlin
were first across the line with Fairtrade close behind. Hard on
the wind down long reach an unusual amount of river traffic meant
a lot of short tacks to keep clear, this suited Snuggles enabling
her to keep pace with the faster yachts. Below the bridge Fairtrade
started to pull clear but was compromised by a dredger coming at
her out of the sun and Marlin slipped round the mark just ahead.
Off the wind back up long reach Fairtrade started to pull away but
Snuggles hoisted a second headsail and passed Marlin into second
place. Further down the fleet Aardvark and Bewitched crossed tacks
all the way down to the bridge before the failing breeze forced
them to retire. Puffin pulled away from these two and rounded the
mark but the lack of wind caused her to retire on the run back.
Jana Ina had rounded the mark a little behind the leaders but had
set her cruising shute and was gaining quickly when the wind died.
Fairtrade took line honors with Snuggles close behind, Snuggles
took the race on handicap with Marlin and Jana Ina the onl other
yachts to finish.
Results
Series positions
so far
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Brunton
Cup
The Brunton
Cup, a dinghy handicap race was scheduled for two legs over the
Bank Holiday weekend. The first leg took place on Sunday 3rd May.
There were five entries, three Hamble Stars, and a Shetland Skareen.
Stars 115 and 111 were sailed single handed all the other dinghies
had full crews. The course was start outside the moorings, up to
the barge off Erith causeway to starboard, down to the last club
mooring buoy again to starboard back up to the barge and down again
finishing up inside the moorings. Star 111 made the best start and
was first to the top mark, Seran Haf the skareen appeared to have
got a good start but was deemed over the line and would pick up
a time penalty. Star 115 was carrying a reef, the helmsman having
claimed he had a bad knee but she was not far behind 111 at the
top mark. With her full sail 111 pulled well ahead on the downwind
leg. On rounding the mark the fleet went out into the river to get
the best tide, the wind increased somewhat and became very gusty
with the short chop making things very difficult. Seran Haf and
the Bosun thought the better of it and retired leaving the three
Hamble Stars in the race. Star 115 suddenly found her reduced sail
somewhat fortuitous and passed the overpowered Star 111 as did Star
106 with her heavier crew weight. Star 115 managed to hold her lead
till the end of the race though Star 106 was closing fast.
On Monday
the strong winds continued and the second leg was canceled the results
of Sundays race standing for the cup.
Full
Results
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Kelpie
Tankard
Classic
sailing cruise from Erith Yacht Club to Thurrock Yacht Club
and Race back for the Kelpie Tankard cup (total 12 nautical miles)
- 22 April 2007
On the same
day London was caught by the Marathon fever, Erith Yacht Club members
and friends (about 30 in total) decided that the best way to spend
the Sunday was on a refreshing sail on the river Thames.
The plan
was originally to cruise down to Greenhithe, but he got informed
that the jetty was totally out of action and nobody would have been
able to get ashore there. (Sid is our very enthusiastic secretary
of the Hamble Stars, who very nicely plans and informs us via e-mail
of the classic sailing events.) So it was decided as an alternative
to make a visit to the Thurrock Yacht Club, which is two nautical
miles further down river on the Essex side. On the way down the
wind was completely still sometimes. It took nearly 2 hours to get
to Thurrock. It was a nice change to two weeks ago when it was blowing
very hard. Sid had warned us in advance that if the various sailors
had not made it for 12.30, the safety boat would have towed you
to Thurrock, in fact this is what happened for some.
The Hamble
Stars are ideal boats to get children and grown ups out on the water
and being relatively heavy in construction and reassuringly steady.
The Star class association is looking for new members to help preserve
the Hamble Stars from decay. Members can adopt one of our wooden
boats and sail it for only £70 per year.
Thurrock
Yacht Club members were very welcoming and were just about to open
the bar when all of a sudden so many visitors arrived from the river.
We had a nice break while waiting for the tide to change direction
and a beer to avoid dehydration for the unusual vernal heat.
At 14.00
sharp Sid gave the start to race back. Iinstructions were very clear
this time, i.e. to go inside the moorings at the Erith Yacht Club
against the down river eddy. In fact sailing against the eddy was
one of the hardest bits of the race; one team even could not do
it and retired. In total the race back lasted about one hour and
half.
Sailing
on the tidal river adds a completely new dimension to everyone's
nautical experience. Sometimes you go backwards. In other occasions
you get a strong push forward. One needs quite some time to learn
to take full advantage of the tidal current.
A big thank
you for the fun goes to all those wooden boats sailors who turned
up on the day, to all family and friends who decided to accompany
us with keelboats and dinghies and to Peter Dornan who again was
escorting us on a safety boat but who did not need to intervene
at all on such a nice day. Well done to Jeremy Michell for bringing
his Mirror in at the front to win the Kelpie Tankard cup on handicap
and to Eve Peyto for being the first Star back..
Our next
classic sailing cruise will be on 24 June and after that on 22 July.
See you soon.
Results
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of Kelpie Tankard Race |
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Summary
of racing results for the 2006
season
Summary
of racing results for the 2005 season
Summary
of racing results for the 2004 season
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