Sailing on the River Medway

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Leigh Trophy Race

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19th March 2020

Leigh Trophy Race 2019

A warm (for October) but damp day with a forecast for increasing southerly winds greeted us on the morning of 13th October. Three starts, one each for the Slow, Medium and Fast fleets at half-hour intervals so that, by and large, all boats sailed the course in the same conditions and it was a long course to Otterham Fairway Buoy via Gillingham Reach and South Yantlet Creek and then back around the back or Nor Marsh, then north up Pinup Reach to the north passage around Hoo Island. Just what the race should be. Maybe in good conditions, it could have been a bit longer but that is immaterial considering what happened.

Fourteen boats signed up to do the race which is not many but in fact, many didn’t even leave the beach. Two only Fast Fleet boats about four 2000s and five Blazes with an RS100 took the start.

Amongst the Blazes it was all pretty close as we battled with a very gusty close reach to the Hoo West Cardinal mark and then on to 30 Chris who had gone back thinking erroneously that he was over the line had got into the lead at 30 but almost collided with a forty foot racer coming around 30 in the opposite direction. His mast caught their slack leeward runner but it slipped off without taking the mast out of his boat or any damage - but it looked dramatic.

We blasted down Gillingham Reach in wind that has risen again to close to survival conditions. It wasn’t just the strength but also the shiftyness with big holes that would drop you backwards into the water. I didn’t see anybody actually capsise but by 24 both Martin Jones and Colin turned back. I nearly did but thought Chris needed somebody to give chase. We sailed to SY4 which was easier being further away from the disturbances of Gillingham and a bit broader. At SY4 we tightened back up to a reach and it was wild again. I sailed conservatively thinking I’m not going to catch Chris but that he might capsise. Chris was fully out on the rack and must have been hammering along. I was sitting in a bit with the main eased and still doing some awful speed. We missed SY2 which was very easy as we were blasting with spray everywhere. We were looking for Otterham Fairway Buoy. We missed that too as we were too far north and we sailed across the mudflats on to almost to Stangate Creek but at high tide that area was unrecognisable and just a huge expanse of water. We couldn’t find the Otterham buoy and after a quarter of an hour of milling around and searching by the powerboat with John Goudie capsised, I decided to return home. So too did John. During this time Chris broke his tiller. On the way back I rounded a peninsular and there was the buoy. Crossing this huge expanse of water there was quite a large chop making beating difficult and being miles from anywhere I was inclined to sit in a bit and take it easy. The wind came up to screaming in the rigging. When I gingerly sailed back up South Yantlet Creek it was tough but when I emerged into the main channel and sailed towards Gillingham Reach it went up another step. Pinup Reach and that end of Gillingham Reach became white water. The chop was breaking over the boat, every wave was a breaking white one and the boat was buried every time. I looked out the back and water was rushing over the floor and out off the transom. My concern was to lay Hoo Ness because I think a tack would have been out of the question. You know what Gillingham Reach is like these days - full of big shifts and holes, well it was all of that plus the chop. It was hairy and I had been just gilling along to be cautious, but I had to put the board well down, sit out and drive the boat or I was going to be washed up on Hoo Island. I managed to lay Hoo Ness and carefully bore away towards the club.

I sailed back to the club with the sail flapping and was glad to be ashore having not capsised at all or having broken anything. John Goudie had just arrived. Quite sometime later Chris was towed in by a safety boat. Much, much later an Alto was towed in. Meanwhile, the 2000s (three of them anyway) had been having a good race and were only just pipped by the RS800 sailed by Richard Smith and Nick Letts. They had only taken a touch over an hour to complete the whole course and that included 3 capsises.

19th March 2020

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Leigh Trophy Race � 9/9/2018

This is the Race Officer's perspective.

Three starts at 11, 11:30 and 12 with a high tide at 13:10

and a wind that was a little brisker than the 12 mph that I saw in the forecast.

Four Musto Skiffs decided not to bother with the race

but go training. This left only 1 Musto, as the Fast

Fleet representative and he had a breakdown during the race and retired.

Three boats, a Miracle and 2 Streakers

made the Slow Fleet start at 11. A half hour later there were six 2000s, a

Blaze, a Fire, a single handed Miracle and two V3000s. I wished I could be amongst

them but duty called. I do like a long distance race and with a nice breeze,

occasional sun and the warm water we get this time of year it looked perfect.

The course took the boats through Hoo

Creek, around a loop in Pinup reach and off on a long reach down South
class=SpellE>Yantlet Creek to the Otterham Fairway

buoy. I was careful with the course to make the navigation easy so for instance

on this long leg there were all the South Yantlet

Creek safe water marks to lead the way to the Fairway Buoy. None of them were

marks of the course - just guidance. Similarly from Otterham

Fairway buoy to Mariners there was the prominent Rainham

Fairway buoy en route, for guidance. From there back

into Gillingham Reach to all the familiar buoys for some more loops to make up

the race length.

The total length was 12.5 miles. The fast reach down South
class=SpellE>Yantlet made the race a little quick and the two V3000s

finished back at the club in a little over 90 minutes and the 2000s took about

2 hours. Really it should have been at least an extra half hour for both fleets

but they seemed happy, so I'm a happy Race Officer.

Many thanks to the crews of the three safety boats who all

handled their duties well and I think probably enjoyed a cruise up some of the

creeks in warm weather and little else to do.

19th March 2020

Leigh Trophy Race – 2 August 15 Report by Stewart Robertson:

Scheduled before the main event was a short pursuit race with only 2 Blazes performing, myself and Adam in Blaze 547. There were about 20 boats and I was hopeless, after launching on the gun I drifted backwards on the tide. By the time I got the feel of the very light conditions I managed to get back to the club and start just as the RS800 started. Adam did better – he ran aground and so didn’t get swept away by the tide.Anyway Adam, the RS800 and myself set about catching the rest of the fleet. The wind was a fickle southerly interrupted on occasions by an easterly sea breeze. It wasn’t good sailing but the three of us gradually caught the rest of the fleet. The race finished after the allotted time of about an hour and a half and we had got past just one buoy.

Fortunately the afternoon was better – a fairly consistent southerly had established itself and it was a brilliantly sunny day. The course was adventurous and that’s just what this race is supposed to be. Every year it is arranged to coincide with the high tide and that opens up the whole of the Medway for an extensive race using creeks and bays which normally are not accessible. You’ll have to refer to the map to make sense of this, and I hope I remember it correctly. In brief it takes the fleet behind Hoo Island and around the back of Nor Marsh and uses some of the navigation beacons (which are steel towers) which normally sit in shallow water.The start was from a committee boat in Hoo Bay and the marks HNWCp (Hoo Ness West Cardinal to port), H3p, H2s, B3p, SY3s, SY2p, PA3s, Otterham Fairway to starboard, SY1p, BCs, Nor Marsh to starboard, H2p, B3s, 31p and finish.

There was no start for slow boats and the Medium Fleet started at 2:05pm, the Fast at 2:35 and high tide was at 3:05. The Medium Fleet was mostly 2000, a couple of Wayfarers, 4 Blazes and the odd Laser and Streaker. A strong starboard bias at the line meant many 2000s barging in at the committee boat, I tried not to be too unkind as I hardened up under them and burst out into a good start. Looking around I could see the two boats I knew would be my main competition had also started well – the Blaze of Martin Jones and the Wayfarer of Brian Lamb. But for the moment as I went into the patchy wind behind Hoo Island I had them behind me and they weren’t gaining.

A nice full power beat to Beacon 3 possibly let me draw away and the lightish reach to SY3 and the fetch to SY2 let them get a bit closer. On the run to the Port Authority Buoy (PB3) they gained as although there was a power boat stationed close by I still couldn’t be sure of its location and probably didn’t sail the most direct course. There was the same problem beating towards Otterham Fairway Buoy as I couldn’t locate it and so just sailed to windward in the best fashion I could. On starboard tack I was gradually headed so I hung on with both the Wayfarer and Martin in the Blaze over my shoulder. But suddenly it lifted and I had to tack – that brought us all together and on the light broad reach to SY1 Martin was only 2 boat lengths on my tail. I rounded and tacked, Martin just hardened up and when we came back together at Bartlett Creek Buoy he was ahead and the Wayfarer was on my tail.

The long reach which takes us south of Nor Marsh was tricky for me. Firstly the wind was not strong enough to get really powered up, if it had been the Wayfarer would have been dead but in those marginal planning conditions the Wayfarer’s longer length means it keeps going in the lulls. Then to make matters worse as it got freer the Wayfarer can use his kite and he did. I made it difficult of course but inevitably he passed and all I could do was sit on his rear quarter in the hope that I would disturb his wind, and we maintained that position with Martin about 100m in front all the way to H2.The tide was ebbing by now and the next beat was across the main channel. This was where I had to catch Martin if I had any hope of finishing in front.

On handicap I knew it was too late to do anything about the Wayfarer but this beat to Beacon 3 was where I had to get it right. So the ploy was to keep closer into the shallows along the shore of Hoo Island and be further up tide than Martin as we crossed the river from Folly Point. Also to be very careful with the steering, tacking and sheeting. I’m inclined to point too high, tack too quickly and sheet too tight when under pressure and so I was prepared to expend a lot of energy on this leg even if it left me a bit knackered for the rest of the race.It worked! I didn’t catch the Wayfarer but as I came up towards the beacon on starboard I was amazed to see Martin plugging the tide on port. I tacked onto port close to the mark with Martin at least 100m behind me.

The next big decision was to head towards Hoo Island and the shallow water along its shore or blast at higher speed down the channel. I compromised, bearing away for Hoo Island was too slow, but the tide was ebbing fiercely and so every little extra puff I used to sail low. Martin followed and seemed not to gain significantly but I was horrified to see another Blaze had already made it to the shallows and was gaining on me.At Mears (marked Hoo Ness on the chart) the tide was sluicing around that corner against us, and it was a run. The fleet compressed here with Martin only 50m behind. I felt one tiny mistake and he’d be past. So what was I to do? Keep the speed up and get drawn out into the tide or run deep and slow to eventually get less tide, but this would give Martin the opportunity to maybe get right on my tail and on my wind. I ran deep and in fact it wasn’t providing enough tidal relief quick enough, so I gybed, ran for another 50m, and gybed back again. I was really apprehensive, my heart was going ten to the dozen trying to work the boat forward. I could go more into the bay and get less adverse tide, but that was slow through the water and a long way round. Or I could go more directly, suffer the increased tide but protect my wind. I kept an eye out for what Martin was doing, but it was heart-in-the-mouth stuff as every moored cruiser I passed seemed to disturb my wind and Martin seemed to be getting closer and closer, and then there was the other Blaze which had appeared from nowhere.

I rounded 31 very wide, say 25m wide, and onto a broad reach this gave me a bit of power in the sail to play with and out of the corner of my eye I saw Martin round 31 close – so he was cutting the corner but he had more tide and wasn’t able to round up as much as me and so didn’t have my speed.Mercifully I crossed the line, Martin crossed 18 seconds later, the Wayfarer had crossed almost three minutes ahead and won the race on handicap.

Well done Brian Lamb and his crew Sam Pygall – they deserved it. I would have to make up 14 minutes on corrected time to match the Wayfarer. The mystery Blaze was Andy Pickrell who was retiring and hadn’t sailed the whole course. Between the Wayfarer and myself was a whole bunch of Fast Fleet boats so I came 6th, but in my eyes, the triumph was the battle with the other Blazes and particularly that hard fought one with Martin Jones.

And talking of eyes, I don’t wear my glasses when sailing so picking out those marks was a challenge and I think a bit of a disadvantage, but what the hell – that was a fabulous course. I was particularly confused around SY2, PA3, Otterham Fairway and Bartlett Creek. We don’t go down that way much, so its unfamiliar but at a high spring tide even more so. For instance Nor Marsh looks like a big island on the chart but on Sunday it was a few tufts of grass and a couple of fence stakes.

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