Poole Winter Series Charity Pursuit Race
by John Withers 12 Nov 2013 05:41 GMT
10 November 2013
Poole sailors race to raise charity funds
Steve Thompson's Elan 333 Beluga came out in front of the Poole Winter Series' Pursuit Race on Sunday. Starting some 31 minutes after Second Chance, the first boat away, Beluga was one of the last off. Thompson helmed his Elan 333 through the melee of handicapped cruisers to emerge victorious at the 12.15 time limit.
Poole YC member Andy Macgregor's Elan 333 Panache was second and Lilliput SC's Colin Stewart was third with his Figaro Pistraus.
All of the first three Elans, including Energy in 7th, were crewed by Commodores' Challenge hopefuls with sixteen year-old Jack Tate helming Panache. These under eighteen year-olds are in training for the challenge between the Poole and Parkstone Clubs' Youth Sections, which takes place in late December.
Almost 50 yachts of every description came to the line, perhaps due to the first decent Sunday in many weeks, and although competitive streaks remain, the point of the excursion was to raise funds for the charities supported by the Poole and Parkstone clubs. This year these are Poole Sea Cadets, Sailability and Macmillan Caring Locally. Crews donate money and clubhouse collections add to the totals on the day.
A pursuit race is exactly that, the slow boats set-off first to be pursued by faster ones and in this example handicaps are even 'fudged' to give consideration to a boat's performance in the series to date. In theory every yacht should be level at the finish and a spectacular sight it makes too.
The race course took boats downwind through the Main Channel to Glovers, a gybe mark. From there a full run towards the leeward mark, Brownsea Light. In retrospect this was always going to provide complications, the tide was full-on flood taking boats on to the mark as they rounded with the buoy to starboard. At this point the lack of wind under the lee of Brownsea Castle was evident and manoeuvrability limited. Some raft-ups and crunching fibreglass ensued, those that escaped unscathed gained big time.
From Brownsea a beat all the way back in an increasing breeze. By Hutchin's, the windward mark off the Hamworthy shore, Beluga was through, never to be caught. She was virtually back on the Poole club line at the finish.
Trevor Vaile's Sonata, Presto, was close behind and went on to be the first In-Harbour Series boat home and winner of the Dunkley Cup. First in Class 1A was Will Dennis's First Escape. Owain Peters took the Class Two honours with Frankie the Rhino and Andrew Edwards won Class Three in Juno. Riff-Raff, the R19 owned by Dave and Jackie Hale was first in class and Rob Clark's Ju Ju was the first J24.