Merlin Rocket Silver Tiller at Brightlingsea Sailing Club

The Silver Tiller series, sponsored by Speed Sails, arrived at Brightlingsea for a five race event on the weekend of the 21st-22nd June.

The skies were grey and the wind 6 to 12 knots from S.E. had a salty sharp edge to it. The Brightlingsea club management was second to none, with the ladies of the galley sending out trays full of bacon buttes, tea and coffee. There is friendliness about the club that makes you feel that you have always been there.

Alan Hicks was the man in charge and lead the BSC race team very well. The start line was controllable and had just enough pin end bias to prevent a committee boat rafting. The fleet of 25 boats started well and with the position of windward mark very close to dead centre the fleet was tempted to the port side of the course to escape a soft tide, but some shift in the wind to the starboard side tempted the hopefuls back into the middle; the sea was as ever a bubble wrap of boat stopping slop.

In race 1 following a clean start William and Chris crunched the numbers right and quickly pulled out an unbeatable lead to take the bullet.

Race 2 saw two recalls before Simon and Phil got down to a much tighter race with Glen and Olly, as now the ebbing tide gathered pace. The downhill finishes with the short leg, having rounded the leeward mark, to the finish line and made an interesting spectacle with some last minute jibes, with boats on port and starboard many places were won and lost.

Arriving Sunday morning sadly the sounds of clanking halyards and the whistling winds through the rigging foretold the end of play. Thank God that common sense prevailed for with little water in the creek and fixed foils, tribes of white horses galloping up the Colne River and the club being to a lea shore it was all over.

This left the top three boats on equal points and Simon and Phil the winners. It should be said that race team Brightlingsea did the Merlins open well, both on and off the water and we look forward to a return trip in 2009.

The next Silver Tiller race is at Whitstable Y.C. Sat 28-29/06/08 http://www.wyc.org.uk/

Overall Results: