Chairman Treasurer Secretary
The National Championships will be held at Harwich this year.
We are hoping to see several South West boats travel to this part of the
world.
SW Championships 15th – 17th July St Mawes
AGM Matters. The minutes of the
last AGM (St Mawes 2004) are enclosed.
The change in subscription, which was agreed,
is being implemented and you should have received your mandate forms to change
your standing orders.
There were discussions regarding owner’s
addresses. We do not yet have written
agreement to circulate these yet, but there is a boat list on the web site,
(which does not have addresses or telephone numbers) for the present.
News from East Coast. David
Mayne and Kelvin Douglas won the Spring series but
Richard Chenery (Class Captain 2004) and Doug Sharps in Avocet won almost all
the other trophies this year and were second in the Spring series.
Spring Summer Autumn
1st Guillemot Avocet Avocet
2nd Avocet Guillemot Telamon
3rd Goosander Storm Petrel Guillemot
The Harwich Regatta provided 5 good
races. Richard Chenery and Doug Sharps
in Avocet won from David Kerridge in Pegasus.
They received the Prosser Plate.
1st Avocet, 2nd Pegasus, 3rd Mars
The Pin Mill Regatta was won by Doug
Sharps and Richard Chenery in Avocet.
The East Coast Championships took place
in
The Ajax
East Coast Championships were held over the weekend of the 26th and
27th June in wonderful conditions with steady winds and sun. As
always with this fleet of keel-boats the racing was extremely close and final
conditions were not decided until the last race of a four race series – two on
the Saturday and two on the Sunday.
Due to
social commitments several of the fleet were unable to make the Championships
but the ten boats that did enter were rewarded with very well set courses out
in
Two races
were held on Saturday in a very steady force 3 from the South.
Race 1 saw
confusion at the start with Thunderer and Storm
Petrel forced over the line early, by Telamon, and
thus having to return to restart. This effectively put an end to Storm Petrel’s
race. The race was won by Avocet who passed Telamon
on the second beat and held position from there. In the closing stages of the
race, Thunderer caught up the leaders and was in a
position to challenge Telamon at the final leeward
mark but was unable to break through.
Race 2 saw
a clean start for the whole of the fleet with Telamon
and Avocet making the early running. Telamon got well away from the fleet but Thunderer made up distance on the first reach of the last
lap and, gybing inside Avocet at the mark, were able
to hold the overlap all the way to the leeward mark, to round just ahead. Avocet was forced to the outside during this
manoeuvre and in some disarray was passed by Goosander just before the line.
Sunday
produced a force 2 from the West on a lovely sunny day. The wind off the land was unsteady and
variable.
Race 3
produced a heavy Starboard end bias as the wind flicked right just before the
start. This led to congestion at the
committee boat end with at least one boat shut out at the start. Goosander made the early running and built a
significant lead of about 100 yards until sailing into a hole on the right side
of the course. This dropped her to
fifth. Large gains and losses were
frequent as the breeze flicked left and right.
Avocet and Telamon made better decisions than
the rest of the fleet and finished first and second with Thunderer
third again after Guillemot lost her spinnaker halyard up the mast, having been
in a comfortable third place. Kelvin
Douglas gamely climbed the mast between races and retrieved the halyard and was
presented with a bottle of wine by his helmsman at the prize giving.
Race 4 saw
a clean start on a square line. Half the
fleet went left and half went right with a large gap between. The ‘left handers’
got a good header and tacked back and looked to be crossing the others easily
only to see a huge right hand lift helping those on the right. Avocet and Telamon
were in the right place again and rounded comfortably ahead.
Going down
the final run Avocet held a small lead from Telamon
and Thunderer. Telemon with
a 2nd, 1st and 2nd knew that they had to pull
something out of the bag to beat Avocet’s 1st, 4th and 1st
and therefore attacked Avocet aggressively at the leeward mark. This manoeuvre failed amidst a great deal of
shouting and gesticulating, allowing Avocet to hold on for a win and well
deserved overall victory.
1st Avocet:
Richard Chenery, Doug Sharps, Michael Archer.
2nd
Telamon: Ian Sharps, Sam Sutton, Tony Jarman.
3rd
Thunderer:
4th
Guillemot: David Mayne, Kelvin Douglas, Tim Hunt.
There was an excellent turnout for the
Nationals. The report written by James
Skellorn follows.
Twenty four
Five boats from Royal Harwich Yacht
Club travelled the 400 miles to do battle with the St Mawes
fleet. On Thursday the team match for
the Oliver Lee trophy was held off St Mawes under
grey skies in rain squalls. St Mawes narrowly beat Royal Harwich to win the trophy for the
first time in some years.
Friday brought a light northerly for
the first race in
On Saturday the sea breeze filled in
before the start giving a south/south westerly force 2. Nemesis,
Indefatigable (Chris Thomas) and Pegasus (David Kerridge) went right,
found the better breeze and reached the weather mark in that order. Pegasus
rolled over Indefatigable on the
first reach to take second place. As the
race progressed Goosander and Athena (David Liddington)
extracted themselves from the chasing pack and passed Indefatigable to take third and fourth.
In the afternoon race in similar
conditions many boats went right but Goosander
went left and led at the weather mark from a bunch of five boats: Athena,
Nemesis, Pegasus, Victory (Mike Conlin) and
There was hope that two races could
be held on Sunday to complete the five race series, but in the event it was
only possible to hold one in a light to moderate easterly breeze. The championship lay between Avocet (1, 6, 1)
and Nemesis (2, 1, 3). Those who went left found a good shift, but a
strong foul tide on the weather mark caused problems for many. Nemesis
was round first followed by Redoubtable
(Neil Cameron) then Avocet and Pegasus.
Avocet was second at the
leeward mark. The leaders went right on
the second boat and Avocet rolled
over Nemesis to take the lead and the
championship. Meanwhile Athena came through to third, and third
place overall. It was a good
championship in light breezes with the biggest turnout for many years.
Overall Results:
1. Avocet (Doug Sharps / Richard Chenery)
(1, (6), 1, 1) 3 points (RHYC)
2. Nemesis (Bob Edwards) (2, 1, (3), 2) 5 points (SMSC)
3. Athena (David Liddington)
((8), 4, 2, 3) 9
points (SMSC)
4. Goosander (Robin Edwards / John Pack (5,
3, 4, (14)) 12 points (RHYC)
5. Pegasus (David Kerridge / James
Skellorn) (7, 2, (14), 5) 14
points (RHYC)
News from St Mawes.
Dudley
Kennett has retrieved Ajax No. 12 from
Osprey has been sold and is now owned by Paul
Smart.
The turnout for
1 Athena (David Liddington – SMSC) 11 points
2 Avocet (Doug Sharps – RHYC) 13 points
3 Nemesis (Bob Edwards – SMSC) 25 points
4 Pegasus (David Kerridge – RHYC) 26 points
5
I have attached a discussion document about
this issue. As you will see, the rules
are very specific about the Association having to give a license to a builder
in order to build a new boat. There will
be a few specific questions to be voted on at the 2005 AGM. I would be grateful if members could send
feedback or thoughts to me.
We also need to decide what to do with the
mould if no new boats are to be built.
It is currently costing the Association about £400 per annum for
storage.
I would like to remind the association that the
Chairmanship returns to the SW after the 2005 AGM, so a new Chairman and a new
Secretary will be elected at the AGM.