2024 Queen Mary Sailing Club Championships

Unusually for Queen Mary, the forecast proved highly accurate for Sunday's racing as a gentle 5-6 knots arrived at 10.30am and built steadily thereafter - in force if not in direction - for the 3-race club championship. The ILCA fleet, despite lacking some obvious frontrunners, still managed to turn out an impressive 26 boats of a combined handicap fleet of 41.

Following a quick reset of the course, race 1 got under way with a decent pin bias and a reasonable amount of friendly start line banter across the fleet. Your editor had a fine viewpoint of the start from some distance back, having assumed wrongly that the ILCA fleet would have a second and separate start. The left initially looked fabulous, but with ¾ of the beat completed the left collapsed and the right came in famously with pressure and a 30-degree lift. Paul Beard led at the windward mark from Tony, with John Curran and Steve Pears also prominent.

2024 Queen Mary Sailing Club Championships - photo © QM

Just getting clear around the windward mark rounding was lively, and while it is apparently very hard to reach the situation of a perfect vacuum, the area directly to leeward of slow-moving RS400 with spinnaker hoisted is probably not far from 0 pressure, and zero humour if sailing an ILCA! As ever in such racing, the leaders stretched away over the 3x triangle course and Paul/Tony were closely matched in phase with regular pulses of pressure, with any shifts mostly favouring the left. Tim Crook had a storming second beat the join the leading pack. Tony finally slipped away to finish comfortably ahead of Paul, Chris, John and Steve.

2024 Queen Mary Sailing Club Championships - photo © QM

Race 2 saw a Windward/Leeward course set as the breeze tried to settle in. The start line resembled an Ikea car park on a Saturday morning - holding a lane was tough and a fair amount of luck came in to play in getting clear of the larger handicap fleet boats. Tim Crook nailed the right to lead around the top mark from Guy and a tight group of John C, William McD, Chris and Commodore James Baxter, regaining his mojo after a first race to forget. Guy passed Tim on the second beat to ease ahead and sailed nicely to lead until the finish. James Baxter worked the shifts best of all to move into second place followed by John C, Chris and a slightly disappointed Tim C, who had clearly buckled under the pressure of leading at such a prestigious event. Mark roundings provided unusual entertainment at times, with a couple of flying 15's demonstrating the power of momentum in clearing a path through a packed ILCA grouping.

2024 Queen Mary Sailing Club Championships - photo © QM

Race 3 was over a trapezoid course in a building breeze, perhaps gusting to 12-14 knots, or 24 knots on the Nobleometer. The start can best be described as carnage for some (see photos) with a few impromptu capsizes and assorted tangles. A number of race hopes ended on the spot, although John C staged a remarkable comeback from being upside down on the gun to finish in 8th place. The left paid significantly on beat one (and each subsequent beat) allowing a tight bunch to squeeze away, led by Mike Bean around the top mark. The 3rd trapezoid downwind leg caught a few out in locating the mark allowing Tom Nash, sailing smart and straight, from 6/7th into the lead to extend nicely up the next beat. Tom then sailed flawlessly through to a very comfortable win. Behind him a group of 6/7 boats swapped positions over following laps until a final beat lefty put paid to the challenge of James B, while Tony suffered from having to throw some turns after a port/starboard. The legend that is Stick Daring held second place until the final leg when he was distracted by a couple walking their dog on the reservoir bank. Stopping for a quick chat cost him a place and allowed Chris through, followed by Stick, Mike Bean, and a fast-moving QM Laser Open champion Michael 'Micky' Pryer finally showing his true form.

2024 Queen Mary Sailing Club Championships - photo © QM

Mixed fleet handicap racing delivers some unique challenges for sure when compared with one design fleet racing, and future races might trigger PTSD in some of our fleet - but it was racing all the same and we finished overall Chris/Tony/John C. The true winner though was undoubtedly Stick Daring, who was invited home for tea and cakes by the dog walking couple and invited to pitch his tent in their garden. If you haven't yet read his fabulous book, you're missing out. Visit www.stickdaring.com

Overall Results: