IRC East Coast Championship and Sail East Regatta
by Julian Lord 28 May 2013 11:23 BST
25-26 May 2013
Kiss, Class One and Overall winner at the IRC East Coast Championship ©
www.yachtpics.co.uk
The River Blackwater estuary off Mersea Island in Essex was the location for this year's IRC East Coast Championship on 25th and 26th May. The event was combined with the season's first Sail East regatta and jointly hosted by West Mersea Yacht Club and Dabchicks Sailing Club. Race officer Paul Jackson and his team ran three races round windward/leeward courses on the Saturday, followed by two 'round-the-cans' races on Sunday, all sailed in light to moderate breezes and with some welcome sunshine. Skippers discarded their worst result, with four races counting for the Championship.
Most of the major East Coast clubs were represented on the entry list, with the fleet split into three classes, starting at five minute intervals. Yachts ranged from the top rated and newly launched 42ft carbon grand prix machine Oystercatcher XXX of Richard Matthews at 1.235 to Tim Wood's classic long keeled wooden 25ft Stella OD L'Etoile, rated at 0.766 – a difference of about 28 minutes an hour on handicap between the two!
Class One saw the 2009 Sail East championship winning X35 Kiss of David Pinner from Haven Ports YC finish equal on points with the Humphreys 36 Inn Spirit of Alan Bartlett from Crouch YC, the X35 taking the top slot by virtue of having two race wins against Inn Spirit's one win. A tie break was also needed to decide third place between Amazon (Tony & Chuffy Merewether's Sunfast 3200i from Crouch YC) and Rob Stewart's Stewart 37 Booty from Royal Burnham YC. Amazon's win in the final race gave her third place. Dabchicks SC's Alan Vince in the Melges 24 Brandyhole took the other race win. Oystercatcher XXX looked superb as she led the class, but in the main was unable to save her time on the leading boats, winding up fifth in class and sixth in the full fleet.
Whilst Class Two saw J80 sportsboats making up half the entry, it was WMYC's Rob Leggett with his Contessa 33 Arctic Monkey who came out on top, winning four of the five races. Next up were four J80s, with the other race winner, John Bolingbroke's JB's80, Ray Apthorp's Jezebel, Bob King's Jazz from Colne YC and Geoff Payne's Surf and Turf finishing in that order after some very close racing. Indeed, just 14 seconds separated the first four boats in Class Two's final race of the weekend.
The front of Class Three saw a scrap between the 2010 Sail East champion Julian Lord with the Impala Scallywag from WMYC and Geoff Gritton's revamped quarter tonner Panic from Brightlingsea. These two were rarely far apart in any of the five races. Panic's win in Saturday's final race kept the class open, but Scallywag came back with two firsts in Sunday's races to give her the class top prize. Third in class was L'Etoile, just ahead of Simon Farren's Sonata Camel.
In the overall fleet, Kiss took the Lay & Wheeler Trophy for winning the event, ahead of Scallywag, Inn Spirit and Arctic Monkey.
Overall Results:
Class One
1st Kiss (D.Pinner) HPYC 7pts
2nd Inn Spirit (A.Bartlett) Crouch YC 7pts
3rd Amazon (T&C Merewether) Crouch YC 14pts
Class Two
1st Arctic Monkey (R.Leggett) WMYC 4pts
2nd JB's80 (J.Bolingbroke) DSC 8pts
3rd Jezebel (R.Apthorp) WMYC 11pts
Class Three
1st Scallywag (J.Lord) WMYC 4pts
2nd Panic (G.Gritton) Colne YC 7pts
3rd L'Etoile (T.Wood) WMYC 12pts
Overall
1st Kiss 8pts
2nd Scallywag 11pts
3rd Inn Spirit 11pts
4th Arctic Monkey 19pts