Shepherd Neame Merlin Rocket Nationals at Whitstable - Day 2

Day two of the Merlin Rocket nationals © Nick Champion / www.championmarinephotography.co.uk

Day two of the Merlin Rocket nationals © Nick Champion / www.championmarinephotography.co.uk

Speed Sails Race Day

The second day of the Shepherd Neame Merlin Rocket Nationals in Whitstable Bay, was to prove tricky. Would it be the tide or the wind clocking to the right that would have the greatest effect? One thing was for sure, get it right and you’re on the ladder, get it wrong and you are sliding down the snake.

With the fleet revitalised and many looking for a better day, lady luck would be dealing some another bad hand. However, some would prevail and so spice up the results scores.

15 minutes before the start, a wind shift from SW to north, saw the start delayed for an hour and a half. Once it had settled down, after one general recall, the Black Flag finally came out. Starting in a westerly 4 – 6 knots, the fleet got away with the committee boat end paying but had some boats jumped the gun!

Having seen the middle left hand side of the beat pay, 3864 (Andy Davis/Ellie Bremner) led at the windward from 3707 (Alex Jackson/Holly Scott) and 3701 (Tom Stewart/Liam Dempsey). However, 3707 was black flagged and became the day’s first casualty.

Down the run, the fleet compressed and racing was very tight. Over the next lap, things remained fairly static as the front runners kept a close eye on each other as they worked against the 1.5 knot tide. One last roll of the dice at the start of the third beat saw a 40° shift, resulting in a new windward mark being laid. This was to play into the hands of 3626 (Glenn Truswell/Olly Turner) bringing them into the top few hunting for glory approaching the windward mark. Down the run it was a case of keeping clear breeze, pressure and making best use of the tide. This meant that the top 10 spread across the course closing on the leeward mark with any one of them potentially taking the lead. Who had gone left and who had hung out on the right for the mark rounding would bring about possible changes in position. Rounding onto the beat the fleet were nose to tail and it was still up for grabs.

Up the fourth and what was to be the final beat, 3704 (Chris Lewns/Tom Pygall) and 3691 (Mike Calvert/Chris Downham) had both played their hands and fought back into contention from the back of the front pack.

So with only 3684 and 3701 holding on from the original top five at the windward mark for the final push for glory, it was to be 3626 that sneaked the win by inches from 3684, followed by 3701, 3704 and 3691. So today Hyde pulled one back from Speed but P&B, North and Rowsell sails are right there is the hunt. With no clear favourite, bragging rights should change tomorrow.

However, yesterday’s kings of the track both finished in the top 10 to keep their challenges on track but will they come back to the front on what is predicted to be another light day on Tuesday. The fleet will be hoping for more wind tomorrow to get back to big sailing conditions.

The R/O Jon Silk and his team of Colin Smith and Co called it spot on. So with the fleet yet to show an outright favourite, tomorrow is a big day for some.

Holt Plate in Association with North Sails

Harken Race Day

Some would say that the Handicap Championship is a side show to the main event, but don’t be fooled, for many this holds as much importance as the main event. This year it is being taken quite seriously with equal sponsorship over the two result systems, but with Chipstow Boats providing the big prize for first place overall in the Holt Plate, this will be one that is closely watched.

As the handicaps now start to show a pattern, the results are going to go to the wire. With two different winners over the first two days and close contention from the middle of the fleet, this is going to be as closer than we’d dreamt.

So each day we have one of the main players giving their account of how they bucked the system and achieved their goal. Today’s Harken winner is Austin Scully standing in for Rein Zilvold, sailing with Julie Nuttall in 3692. Interestingly if Austin had been helming from the start, he’d have had an even better handicap than that of today. It just goes to show that when you get into the grove anything may be possible.

Julie Nuttel’s Experience: Today's race was wonderful, and we are very proud to have won the Harken Holt Plate sponsored race designed to award people who show up year after year to the championships, and finish well on handicap.

Having Austin standing in for Rein today, it would be interesting to see how the team work went. We gelled well as a team and with no pressure, were to have a good day. We found ourselves much further up the fleet than normal, thanks to an amazing start at the committee boat end, even though it was on the black flag. With clear air and good boat speed, we found we could hold our own on the first beat, going the right way and playing the shifts and being aware of the strong ebb tide. We chose the middle right side, working the shifts with fully powered up rig, things were looking promising for a good position around the windward mark. Due to the larger then normal shifts, the compass was important and we seemed to come out of it quite well. We took particular note of this particularly following the shifts demonstrable by the number of times the Race Committee had to reset the course!

The first run, being one-sided, gave us the impression that the wind would fill in on the left once round the mark, though most of the fleet went right, we seemed to power along quite well on the left in clean air, and held our position. We were sat on a couple of times from boats that thought we had no business being up so close to the front. We lost a few places at one stage close to the windward mark by choosing to go to the lay-line and tack, when 2 tacks would have clearly worked much better, but that all added to the fun. The reaches were quite tight, but the breeze was light so as not to make them difficult for the lighter crews of which we fall into the middle ground.

With the race shortened early and seeing the finish flag on the last beat was a pleasure, as we found ourselves in the thick of it closing on the finish. Having had a good final battle with 3695 (Mathew Winder/Callum Mackenzie), 3644 (Steve Mitchell/Liz North), 3693 (Will Rainey/Kelly Miller) and 3619 (Dave Charlton/Celia Charlton), we lost out to 3695 but held on to finish 19th. A day’s most enjoyable racing and with Rein back from the Netherlands today, hopefully 3692 will be up there again doing battle and hopefully putting a series together to get a good overall position in the Holt Plate.

Results after Day 2: