Mersea Week 2022

The Smack Start with Peace on the mark during Mersea Week 2022 © Chrissie Westgate

The 48th annual Mersea Week saw a bumper entry of over 130 boats, including a good number of visiting yachts and dinghies. Five days of racing took place on Essex's River Blackwater estuary in a range of conditions, Monday's first day being the most extreme, with a lot of yachts needing to kedge in the sunshine early on and 35 knot gusts in driving rain later on, causing a number of dinghy capsizes!

The small but very competitive IRC Keelboats class was dominated by the Clifton Family's Archambault A31 Aztec, with Ed Harrison's Corby 29 Entropy from Royal Harwich YC and the J92 Jazz (John Attewell) next up.

Local Handicap Cruisers during Mersea Week 2022 - photo © Chrissie Westgate

Such an important part of the week, the nine Smacks looked spectacular, especially downwind with clouds of sail set, and the overall winner was Charlotte Cock's CK395 Puritan, beating Angus Millgate's CK171 Peace into second place by a single point, with CK52 Kate skippered by Ross Wey in third. After enjoying a successful Cowes Classics Week, CK318 Alberta (skippered by Ross' son Connor Wey) was next up in fourth.

The large Classic Yachts & Gaffers entry of 21 boats was divided into two groups, with another Cowes Classics Week prize winner, Julian Lord's Tumlare Zest winning the final race and with it the 'A' Division by a single point from Richard Matthews Scorpio, the leading Stella. Third was Robin Dutton's newly acquired Nordic Folkboat Strider from Stour SC, and fourth Amanda Stear's beautiful International OD Mitzi from the Orwell, whose week was sadly cut short when some of the crew went down with Covid. Seven of the eleven 'A' Division boats had at least one top three finish. In the 'B' division, the Gaff Cutter Nesta (Nancy Harrison) came out on top, with tie-break rules needed to separate the next three boats, Frederick Tester's little Kent based 19ft Gaffer Fifi, complete with topsail, Joe Kershaw's Buchanan Patica and Kim Holman's first ever design, Phialle (Stephen Jones) from Stour SC finishing second, third and fourth respectively.

Gracie and Zest during Mersea Week 2022 - photo © Chrissie Westgate

Fresh from their National Championship at nearby Brightlingsea the previous week, the local Sonata class enjoyed some good one design racing, with Adrian Mathie's Exposition winning comfortably from Jess Gozzett & Partners in Wet Endeavour, Aubie Too (Tony Hawkes & Pat Hill) and Steve Phillips & Partners with Obsession; eight of the ten Sonatas had at least one top three finish. The Local Handicap keelboats saw Robin Page's Beneteau 31.7 Tigger from Brightlingsea dominate the 'A' division, ahead of David and Mike Banks recently acquired Hustler 32 Tramp, with a second 31.7, Stuart Howells's Wookie from Harwich in third. In the 'B' Division, the C&C27 Algonquin (Barry Ashmore) won, with two MGC27s up next, Vic Prior's Skybird beating Tearaway (Richard Holroyd) into second overall. The 15 strong White Sail class all started together, but were divided into Fast and Slow for prizes. These boats are mainly more cruiser than racer and usually sail shorthanded, and two of the Slow group came out on top - the little Hustler 25.5 Ufo of Bob Mercer beating Jack Davis Sadler 32 Clockwise for the top position, with the one-off Hartley (Oliver Kearin) third Slow, down in seventh. The Fast section's first three were Rob Smith's Oceanis Clipper 323 Tamarisk, the Sigma 33 Starfall II of John Clifton and Andrew & Jill Stebbings Hanse 311 Seahawk.

The Skybird Crew during Mersea Week 2022 - photo © Chrissie Westgate

After several race ending capsizes on the first day and the cancellation of racing on the second day, the MFOBs and dinghy classes enjoyed some close tussles during the final part of the week. The difference in size, speed and crew numbers between the biggest and smallest MFOBs is considerable, and the 21 strong entry start together but are divided for results. The Fast Division winner was decided on the third tie-break (the final race win) with Oliver & Vicky Grogan's Spray took top spot from Tom Bowman's Mystery, with Prince (Will Montgomerie) ahead of Miss X (Tom Crossley) in third and fourth respectively. In the Slow Division, Lucy Struth's Grey Goose won, ahead of Ally Lump (William Baker), Jack Liz & Paul Harrison) and Wild Goose (Zak Clarke) taking the other top places.

Lucy Struth and Jackie Morley in Grey Goose during Mersea Week 2022 - photo © Chrissie Westgate

The dinghy entry was divided into three, with the Slow class won by RS Feva XL of Scarlett MacLennan, ahead of Charlotte Powell's ILCA4 and the Comet Duo (David & Liz Willey). In the Medium class, it was a battle between ILCA6s and Solos, with Adam Rowe and Sam Grout's ILCA6s positioned in first and second, followed by Robin Gozzett and Brian Lamb's Solos in third and fourth. The Fast class saw a wide spread of boats, with three boats OCS on the final day's race impacting upon the overall results. Dan Woodcock & Rigs Dando and Tom & Georgie Dutton's RS400s finished in first and third respectively, split by Lee Child's Finn in second and Chris Green's Phantom placing fourth. Sadly perhaps, gone are the days of dinghies generally having names!

Overall Results:

For full results, go to merseaweek.org