Royal Western Yacht Club 1884 Series - Day 2
by Keith Davies 22 Apr 2021 11:02 BST
21 April 2021
The first races of the Royal Western Yacht Club 1884 Series took place on Wednesday the 21st April after last week's cancellation due to no wind.
The breeze was forecast to build from the east and RO Keith Davies accompanied again by his wife Nicola, David Taylor and Keith's designated committee boat driver Tony Loosmore headed towards Melampus in the middle of Plymouth Sound eventually anchoring to to North of the main channel. Two shipping moves were scheduled with the latter inbound move being after the start of race one.
The first race of the evening was a windward/ leeward between Dunstone and a laid mark just off Drakes Island. Jerry and Bryony Lock in the mark laying rib Dolphin had set the pin with a bowmans dream transit of Smeatons Tower on the Plymouth Hoe! With this being the first race of the series all boats approached the line with caution and were a few seconds late.
On the second beat towards Dunstone The pilot boat was now on the second inbound shipping movement and visibility slowed to allow the fleet to cross his path without being hampered on their course towards the windward mark. Peter Rowes J109 Jukyu lead the fleet round both laps closely followed by Steve Andrew's SunFast 3200 'Sunfire'. The gusty conditions caught out a few boats resulting in a few messy spinnaker drops at the leeward mark.
Race 2 was an around the cans race of ending with a beat up through the Cattewater to finish on the club line. Again close racing was the call for the evening with three boats overlapped at both leeward marks, before a tacking battle across the front of Plymouth Hoe heading to the east. Daryl Conyers helming 'Men Behaving Badly' had a close duel with the J109 allowing the SunFast to make gains. Jukyu crossed the line first by seconds to take line honours with MBB and Sunfire with a dead heat for second and third. Annie Haigh's Laser 28 'Firefox' had sailed two clean races resulting in a successful evening of a clean sweep in all results categories.
Thanks to Ullman Sails' Jon Pegg and Nicola for the photos and videos.