Bottle Boat Championship at Waldringfield Sailing Club
by Roger Stollery 17 Oct 2010 09:08 BST
10 October 2010
Warm sunshine, a limit ‘big rig’ onshore breeze, a spring tide and 24 entries including seven juniors made for some exciting sailing in near perfect conditions, in a fabulous setting on the river Deben in front of the Waldringfield Sailing Club. It provided a great spectacle not just for a great number of family and supporters, but also for the public and the club’s new members attending the club’s lunchtime barbecue.
The racing in a single fleet started with skippers on the beach with these simple one-design boats, made from recycled materials, beating against the strong flood tide. There was initially chaos at the windward mark because it was difficult to make sufficient allowance for the strength of the tide, but the lessons learned reduced collisions in subsequent races. On the quartering run to the leeward mark there was lots of fast planing for those who got their trims right and allowed their swing rigs to extract the maximum power from the 8-12 mph winds.
Ex-champion, Rob Vice won the first race by beating Wayfarer sailor Noel Fraser into 2nd place. However Noel came back to win Race 2 from reigning champion Bernard Kufluk. The next two races belonged to 14 year old Paul Morgan, who was sailing exceptionally well to beat all his elders. Rob won 4 of the next 5 races with his run only interrupted by Bernard winning Race 6. The lunchtime scores showed Rob with a 10 point lead, Noel second with 21, closely followed by Paul with 22 points.
Everyone enjoyed the barbecue shared with the ‘new members’ and the Laser dinghy open meeting sailors. The tide had covered the beach by this time and the raised control area together with the gradually slackening tide made judgements at buoy roundings easier with fewer collisions.
A new winner in Race 10 was Sigma 33 sailor, Graham Viney, who had 3 thirds from the previous races. Footy sailor, Gary Sanderson, had retired from this race with a battery problem, but came back to win Race 11. Graham's father Alan was obviously enjoying the lack of tide at high water and his improved performance helped him to take the next two races before letting his son win again in Race 14. The racing was very close during this race as 4th to 8th crossed the line in just a few seconds.
As the tide started to ebb the wind direction changed and the course was amended to include a zig zag beat. This allowed the experienced Rob, who now had several mediocre results, to keep up his challenge for the championship to win Race 15, beating young Paul into second place.
The wind increased with the change of tide, creating some big waves and some sailors found that just sailing the course was difficult against the very strong ebb tide, which also gave rescue boatman, Robert Lake a hard time rowing after boats making rapid progress down river to Felixstowe Ferry! Alan won Race 16, beating Footy sailor, Phil Broszek and Noel into second and third places. A simpler sausage course was reinstated, which allowed 10 boats to finish in the last race.
The scores were very close going into Race 17 with 8 points separating the top 6 boats and Rob and Paul on the same score. Rob’s father Jim Vice took this race with Bernard second and Wayfarer sailor Neil Collingridge third after a long series of technical difficulties for most of the day. However the real race for the championship was further down the list, where Paul with steely concentration and determination finished just one place in front of Rob in sixth place to win the 2010 Championship and both the junior and the Champion’s trophy; a remarkable achievement.
WSC Commodore Howard Ryan, who with Paul and Bernard were the only sailors to complete every race, thanked Roger and his team, Peter, Sarah, Rob, Bryony and Robert for running another good event that was much enjoyed by both sailors and spectators alike.
Overall Results:
1st Paul Morgan (J) (Guildford) 55pts
2nd Gabriel & Rob Vice (Clapham) 56pts
3rd Bernard Kufluk (WSC) 58pts
4th Graham Viney (Welwyn Garden City) 61pts
5th Noel Fraser (WSC) 64pts
6th Alan Viney (Guildford) 67pts
7th Phil Broszek (Guildford) 90pts
8th CJ Vice (J) (Guildford) 110pts
9th Robert Norris (WSC) 116pts
10th Gary Sanderson (Rochester) 117pts
11th Angus Stone (J) (WSC) 146pts
12th Dot Fraser (WSC) 152pts
13th Jim Vice (Clapham) 163pts
14th Howard Ryan (WSC) 166pts
15th Mike Pert (WSC) 222pts
16th Tony Knight (West Kingsdown) 236pts
17th Jane Norris (WSC) 250pts
18th Steve Burke (WSC) 258pts
19th Neil Collingridge (WSC) 265pts
20th Lockie Vice (J) (Guildford) 277pts
21st Charlotte & Victoria Broszek (J) (Guildford) 289pts
22nd Tim Elloit (WSC) 290pts
23rd Josh Woolf (J) (WSC) 297pts
24th Hayley Vice (J) (Guildford) 320pts
Best turned out boat – Peter Stollery’s no:4 sailed by Graham Viney