Laying Up Cup - October 2019

It was light winds and an ebb tide with about 18 boats out which for some will be their end of the sailing season. It wasn’t at all cold because of the bright sunshine.

This was a mass start for all fleets and a difficult start with the tide washing people downstream beyond the start line. Just before the start the wind almost disappeared and so many including myself were well over the line and for a while not able to get back and make a proper start. For the first time ever in my memory, there was a general recall, and we were all rounded up by the safety boat for another go.

Just as in the morning there were 3 Blazes. There were many other boats but I only look for Blazes in these races. Both Alastair and myself started in a light patch, so Colin got away. Alastair is a good sailor and he managed to creep up to Colin by 30 and we were washed down to 25 and started the beat back against the tide. The tide sluices past 25 so the last place you want to be around 25 is down tide. I rounded very carefully as close as I could with a nice smooth roundup onto a beat and that paid dividends by putting me close to Alastair and Colin. In light winds, it’s nice to have a pointy mode as there is no way you are going to plane to windward but it is easy to go very slow if not careful and that doesn’t work when you are bucking the tide.

It all paid off for me on this occasion, Alastair fell back into my dirty wind as I squeezed up and Colin fell off to leeward which was out into more contrary tide putting me in the lead by a boat length or two. I saw in front that the faster boats had all to bear away and surmised they were running aground so I too eased and drove off with a bit more speed and pulled well away from the other Blazes.

I daren’t look around too much as this was light air sailing and absolute concentration is required on the sail and the telltales to maintain speed. Occasionally a glance at the centreboard in case it was touching the mud, was allowed. In this part of the river, the mud has a layer of thin mud the consistency of custard on the top and you can still sail through it but it slightly slows you down. Years of sailing the Laser 4000 back has taught me great respect for this mud as the 4000 had a draught of almost 1.5 metres and it was a daggerboard. I lost count of how many times I dragged the Blaze centreboard through that sticky mud but I bore away each time and heeled the boat before the rudder touched and managed to keep my lead and actually gained on the fast boats. I quick glance behind at one point saw the other Blazes and some other boats all in a clump perhaps 200m behind. I assumed they were all stuck.

By 29 Alastair was back though and the safety boat was indicating a shortened course. I didn’t know if we had to go between the safety boat and the mark or just head back to the club line but when I saw the leading Alto do that I decided to do the same. We had probably only been racing 40 minutes but the wind was lightening and the tide was now strong and contrary. Over the next hour and ten minutes, I battled against that tide, trying to firstly get around the tidal gate at Hoo Ness and then beat up the moorings. I ran aground a lot and thought I’d got well ahead of Alastair but by the time we got to the final short beat to the line there was Alastair again on my tail. This final few hundred metres was painfull with small gains made against the tide being wasted in the lulls by being swept backwards back down the trots. Alastair was at times only a couple of boat lengths behind but in those conditions, a couple of boat lengths could be several minutes of sailing. All I had to do was get out the end of the trots and inshore to what I believed would be a back eddy. There might not be any wind there but at least the water flow would carry me across and thankfully in one little rise in pressure that is just what happened and I finished. What a relief, Alastair finished also but 15 minutes after me - that is a measure of what a couple of boat lengths can mean in those conditions. Chris Ashby and Ian Parris finished well before me and another Alto just after me. We were the only finishers of this race everybody else needed to be towed in.