Larks at the Waldringfield Sailing Club Cartoon Trophy 2024
by Chris Fish 10 Sep 15:45 BST
7-8 September 2024
Waldringfield's annual Cartoon trophy open meeting took place over the weekend of 7th/8th September, being part of the 2024 Lark Class Craftinsure Traveller's Series for the Belle Isle Trophy. The weekend kicked off socially on with a Club BBQ on Friday evening, welcoming the Dragonfly visitors from Ireland who were using the event for their world championships and 75th anniversary event.
The forecast looked light for the Saturday, and this proved correct with a 2hour postponed announced at the 10am briefing. However, the wind did fill in for a 1pm start and two races completed by all eight classes and 93 boats taking part. A light breeze filled in for a compact figure-of-8 (windward-leeward) course to be set downriver of 'the island' for two races.
Unusually for an open meeting, a club-line start was used for the first race and as the wind was straight down the river with the flood tide made for a decent beat. A starboard windward mark caught a few out with a strongly favoured starboard approach (from the right (Waldringfield) shore) due to the tide crossing back to a run. Chris and Cathy Fish played catch-up after a poor start, picking off boats through the race to take the hoot from Guy Brearey and Lucy Preston.
The wind had veered and river filled up enough to make a committee boat start worthwhile for the second race. Careful observers would have seen old time Larkies Rob Bellfield (1990 Lark Cartoon winner) and Dave Chisholm carry out a text book port hand flier in the local clinker-built Dragonfly class's start preceding the Larks for the second race; however, the Larks were somewhat more on the wing and didn't let that happen again. This was fortunate for Chris and Cathy who'd taken the strategic decision to start at the committee boat to bang right to cheat the tide.
Anyway, it balanced out with a good close race to the first mark. Local light wind specialists, Harry Pynn and daughter Margot (6) then pulled ahead but had the misfortune of having to retire for family reasons from a winning position late in second race. Chris and Cathy were left to take the slightly hollow win with Emma Harris / Sara Cox-Olliff second.
On Saturday evening the club hosted dinner and drinks, providing all competitors with sustenance and a relaxing sociable atmosphere in the evening sunshine, whilst talk of the next day's decent sailing with a super forecast prevailed.
Sunday's racing proved to be somewhat more energetic with a building wind forcing all to depower and light rain making it all a little damp. Race 3 was dominated by Harry Pynn and Gemma Cook (mum was allowed back in the boat) using great speed and strategy to cross the tide at the right time and take an unassailable lead. In the group behind, a really close race was had between the chasing pack competing to reach the favoured side and less foul tide twice per beat.
On the last beat, however, Nigel Hufton & Charlotte Stewart took the lift and lee-bowed the flood tide to patiently sail past 3 boats duelling up the bank into second. Having swapped places throughout the race Chris and Cathy sneaked third on the line from Guy & Lucy.
Races 4 and 5 (after lunch) were sailed with much more water and the moderate breeze, gusting enough to make things interesting for the unwary and generating some aching muscles the next day. This time the leeward mark was unashamedly upriver of the island to make a long main beat and run past the island with tactical decisions when to cross to the Waldringfield bank down river to mark 'C' and to the club line key to success.
After some hard racing and a lot of close tacking next to the SSSI saltmarsh later, Nigel and Edd took a well-deserved victory in race 4, with Chris & Cathy some way behind just managing to pass Emma/ Sara for second near the end.
With the discard kicking in, Nigel and Edd had a chance to take the Mike Peyton "Starboard" cartoon on last race result with a second race win but it wasn't to be this time. Instead, rounding the inside of the Galleons Hard bend as close as possible to the then submerged saltmarsh cliff paid dividends for the local boats. Chris and Cathy eventually claimed the prize (being late for prize-giving too) after a proper ding-dong battle with Harry/ Gemma and Dan Watson with Natalie Bannister pushing hard for their best result of third.
A wonderful weekend's sailing was extended by generous prize-giving, with gifts given by both the club and Lark Class sponsors, Craftinsure.
Thanks go to Waldringfield Sailing Club's awesome race crew headed up by Patrick Gifford and safety team who had a busy day on Sunday, helping those who had inadvertently filled their boats with water from the River Deben.
Next event on the Lark Class 2024 Craftinsure Traveller series is the Inland Championships next weekend (14th/15th Sept) at Grafham Water SC. It's sure to be a massive one, sharing with the Scorpion Class.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Crew | Club | R1 | R2 | R4 | R5 | R6 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | 2494 | Christopher Fish | Cathy Fish | Waldringfield SC | 1 | 1 | ‑3 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 2nd | 2538 | Nigel Hufton | Edd McArdle / Charlotte Stewart | Frensham Pond SC | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | ‑6 | 11 |
| 3rd | 2520 | Harry Pynn | Margot Pynn / Gemma Cook | Waldringfield SC | 5 | (DNF) | 1 | 4 | 2 | 12 |
| 4th | 2522 | Guy Brearey | Lucy Preston | RTYC | 2 | 3 | 4 | ‑5 | 4 | 13 |
| 5th | 2491 | Emma Harris | Sara Cox‑Olliff | Waldringfield SC | 4 | 2 | 6 | 3 | ‑7 | 15 |
| 6th | 2531 | Dan Watson | Nat Banister | Waldringfield SC | ‑7 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 18 |
| 7th | 2539 | Nigel Scott | Tegwyn Tricker | RYA | 6 | 6 | ‑7 | 7 | 5 | 24 |
| 8th | 2474 | Philippe Kerampran | Gery Ducatel | Waldringfield SC | 8 | 7 | (DNC) | DNC | 8 | 33 |
| 9th | 2540 | John Crooks | William Ellis | | (DNC) | DNC | 8 | DNC | DNC | 38 |