Brass Monkey Trophy 2012 at Leigh-on-Sea Sailing Club

Leigh on Sea Brass Monkey © Graeme Sweeney / www.marineimages.co.uk

Seb Baucutt and Andy Middleton win the Leigh on Sea Brass Monkey © Graeme Sweeney / www.marineimages.co.uk

To end the 2012 season at Leigh on Sea SC the annual Brass Monkey Race was sailed on Sunday 30th December, the weather forecast strong to gale force South Westerly winds reduced the number of entries to 16 brave enough to launch into the 'sheltered' end of the Southend seafront.

The race officer and his team set a triangular course with a short start line at the club race box. The first attempt at starting the race saw too many boats on the wrong side so a general recall was necessary.

During the pre-start sailing around several boats capsized or found the conditions too much for their ability and they decided not to race. The second start saw only 12 boats start on the first upwind leg, the early leader was the RS200 sailed by Seb Baucutt, closely followed by John Charles in a Laser, Colin Walker in the leading Solo and Steve's Corbet and Hill in a GP14. Down the first reach Seb set his gennaker and stretched his lead to the gybe mark where prudence was the order of the day as those who made it to the mark, tacked rather than risking the gybe.

The second reach was very broad, almost a run to a leeward mark close to the beach by Chalkwell Station, a short beat back to the start line completed the short but enjoyable race for those who avoided the capsizes.

Overall Results: