Southend Nore Race 2006 at Benfleet Yacht Club

Boats of all shapes and sizes take part in the Southend Nore Race © Graeme Sweeney

Boats of all shapes and sizes take part in the Southend Nore Race © Graeme Sweeney

So how did a sailing race around a sandbank in the Thames called the "Nore" start? Well in the 1920's Frank Garon of the well known Southend based Garon Business family approached the 'interclub' association of Southend yacht clubs with the idea of a race around the Nore light vessel, the Interclub were not interested, so Mr Garon, as a member of Benfleet Yacht club, confronted the members with the idea, and they agreed to run it on that basis, and so the race was born.

Later on in the 1950's Frank Garon decided to leave the UK and emmergrate to Australia, and so the commodore of Benfleet yacht club at the time a Mr Will Clarke asked him, whilst standing on the end of Southend pier if he would continue his donation to enable the race to continue, this he agreed to do, unfortunatly Frank Garon died within six months of his pledge, and his ashes were scattered of the now infamous Nore sand.

Today the Nore Race is one of the largest yacht races on the east coast of the UK, with boats of all shapes and sizes ranging from small single handed dinghies, classic traditional working sailboats to out and out racing yachts, monohulls, catamarans & trimarans.

This years course was set over 8 miles due to the light wind conditions, with around 200 competitors starting at Southend peirhead.

The race was initially delayed for 40 minutes, to allow all the competing boats to make the start line in the fading wind conditions. By the first mark, the wind began to increase from the east, making it more interesting by allowing the competitors to actually compete rather than just drift.

Once the leading pack of boats had crossed to the Kent side of the Thames, the fickle wind again began to fade, splitting the fleet even more, as they struggled now against a flooding tide to round the last mark before the final leg to the finishing line. At this stage a few boats retired, as they knew that to finish within the alloted time of 6 hours was near impossible.

The Nore race, is truelly a classic and unique Essex yacht race, sucsessfully hosted by Benfleet Yacht Club, and yet another year that they can be proud of, by upholding this fine tradition, long may it last!

Overall Results: