Mersea Week 2024
by Chrissie Westgate 26 Aug 13:28 BST
18-23 August 2024
A Smacks Start at Mersea Week 2024 © Chrissie Westgate
2024 was the fiftieth year of Mersea Week, an event which began as quite a small regatta, but has gradually got bigger to now become one of the largest annual regattas on the East Coast.
This year, the organising committee under the new chairmanship of Fran French made special efforts to commemorate such a significant occasion. The first day saw mainly light airs, with big wind shifts making for tricky conditions, followed by good stiff breezes for two days. Following Wednesday's lay day, unseasonal gales causing Thursday's racing to be wiped out for all classes and strong winds then forcing Friday's racing to be delayed, with three classes having to be cancelled. However, the Week overall was judged to have been a great success, both afloat and ashore. With generous sponsors enabling entry fees to be kept very low, free moorings provided to all visiting Smacks and yachts and racing being held in the lovely estuary of the River Blackwater, what's not to like about Mersea Week!
The Week very much benefits from the large range of classes racing, with IRC yachts, Smacks, Locally Handicapped Cruisers, Sonata one designs, Classic Yachts and Gaffers, White Sail Cruisers, Mersea Fisherman's Open Boats (MFOBs) and four classes of dinghies all well supported. With a total entry for the Week of 138 boats, this was the biggest number for some years.
The IRC class of just five boats was numerically the smallest but of the highest calibre and the week's racing was also for the IRC East Coast Championship, with the leading boats receiving valuable Spinlock prizes given by RORC. Overall winner was the top rated Oystercatcher 36, the Corby 36 of Richard Matthews, who was one of the founders of Mersea Week all those years ago. Next up were the Archambault A31 Aztec of the Clifton Family, helmed by Gabby Clifton with regular visitor Ed Harrison with the Corby 29 Entropy from Royal Harwich YC in third.
This year saw a superb total of 16 Smacks racing hard for supremacy. They were split by size and performance - nine in the Fast division and seven in the Slow. Final positions were only decided by the results of the last race, with Phil Plumtree's MN69 Martha II coming out on top ahead of Connor Wey sailing the top-rated CK318 Alberta, Kent visitor Dan Tester with CK469 Yet and last year's winner Charlotte Cock with CK395 Puritan. These Smacks took the top four places both overall and in the Fast division. In the Slow division, Nick Purdie's CK46 Gracie was the winner, ahead of CK213 Boudicea (Reuben Frost) and MN52 Skylark (Russell Clarke).
The Sonata racing doubled up for both the Week and the class's East Coast Championship, with four Brightlingsea boats joining the eight local Sonatas. For the second year running, visitor Tim Ashworth's Blackjac dominated, counting a perfect score of firsts. Stephen Phillips Obsession, the only other race winner, took second spot ahead of Adrian Mathie's Exposition, followed by Tim Crossley with Parody and a second Brightlingsea boat, Mark Wilby's MK4.
Like the Smacks, the fifteen strong entry of Local Handicap cruisers was split into 'A' and 'B' groups and the faster 'A' group saw a close tussle between Dabchicks SC Commodore Mike Banks Hustler 32 Tramp and Jack Trollope's Sigma 33 Starfall 2, the Hustler winning by a single point. Next up was regular visitor Stuart Howells from Harwich with the Dehler 29 Dynamic and the Beneteau First 30JK Marionette (Max Davenport). In the 'B' Division, the MGC27 Tearaway of Richard Holroyd and James Sanderson came out on top, beating Barry Ashmore's C&C27 Algonquin and Alan Mason and Shirley Swann's Sigma 292 Dura.
Another class with 'A' and 'B' divisions was the Classic Yachts & Gaffers, and four Nordic Folkboats enjoyed some really close racing as well as dominating the 'A' results, Julian Lord and Mike Allpress's recently acquired Gremlin winning from Scot Yeates Flicka II. She beat visitor Robin Dutton's Strider on tie-break for third, with WMYC Commodore John Munns' Pip in fourth. In the 'B' division, Nancy Harrison's gaff cutter Nesta was the winner, with Louis Mayes wooden Nordic Folkboat from Burnham in second, followed by Tollesbury based Richard Ham's gaff cutter Fanny of Cowes, which was originally built as a working boat in 1872 by John Watts of Cowes!
In the seventeen strong White Sail Cruisers, the overall and 'B' division winner was Steve Johnson with the little Beneteau First 211 Bear and he was awarded the trophy for the best overall performance in the keelboat classes. Chasing him hard all week was Bob Mercer's Hustler 25.5 Ufo, with just seconds splitting them on corrected time. In third place was WMYC Rear Commodore Alan Jones Beneteau 285 French Mistress and the Westerly Centaur Admiral Benbow of Lucie Latham and girls, who also probably had the most fun all week of anyone who was afloat!
Competitors in the four dinghy classes - Performance, Fast, Medium and Slow - all enjoyed some close racing, with sailing in the strong wind on the final day held in the creeks rather than out in the estuary. The Performance class was dominated numerically by the local RS700 fleet with Jack Grogan winning. However, beating all the other RS700s to take second overall were local Cadets Scarlet MacLennan and Joel Simpson's 29er ahead of Tom Dutton and Sam Caslin's RS700s.
The Fast dinghy class saw a mixture of boats racing, with WMYC Secretary Tim Wood with his Wayfarer the class winner and Sam Grout's ILCA7 and Jon Gay and daughter's Laser 3000 finishing in second and third. In contrast, five of the top six Medium fleet dinghies were ILCA6s, and the clear winner Morty Mastin was also awarded the trophy for the best performance in the dinghy classes. Second was Rachel Green's ILCA6, with the leading Solo of Brian Lamb in third ahead of Nicholas Law's ILCA6.
In the Slow class, the ILCA4s of Libby Watkins and Grace Gothard placed 1-2, with Rosie Brown's Comet Duo in third and Charlotte Powell's Splash in fourth. Running concurrently for the first three days of the Week was an ILCA Open Meeting and this was won by the ILCA4 of Henry Moss.
And last, but by no means least, the MFOBs! The total entry of 25 boats of all shapes and sizes was the best for several years, and with such a fleet, the start line was crowded at times. Counting a perfect score of four firsts, Oliver Grogan with Spray won both the overall prize and the thirteen boat Fast fleet. John Dyson with Florrie May was a clear second, ahead of Fiducia (Ben Woodcraft/Dave Cope) and Bryan Sargeant's Merlin. With Angus Milgate's Smack Peace away in Kent being rebuilt, he showed his versatility by taking Boy George to victory in the Slow MFOB fleet, beating last year's winner Seamus Clifford (Woody), Rebecca Brown and Lucy Milgate with Serenity and Tom Crossley's Joy.
Next year's Mersea Week will run from 10th-15th August.
Full results can be found on merseaweek.org