Royal Harwich Catch Me If You Can Race - raising funds for Bart's Bash
by Tom Dixon 26 Sep 2023 23:01 PDT
23 September 2023
Royal Harwich Catch Me If You Can Race - Kasbah who held on to win the ‘No One Caught Me award' © Kathryn Deaton
The last of the club's cruiser pursuit events for the year took place on Saturday 23rd. This year we have been using club adjusted YTC's in an attempt to get the finishers close together at the end and we have plans to tweak the format for 2024.
Fifteen boats joined the fray with late entrant Heidi 11 (Folkboat) only entering on the morning and single handed so had to join Kasbah (Oyster 26), also a new entrant but with known local racing pedigree as the first boats away, both white sails only. The fleet was very evenly matched so all the boats started within 25 minutes of each other beating into a light westerly against the tide. There was a mixture of full and white sails with crew sizes ranging from one to five with 47 sailors in total afloat.
The award for best starter at 6 seconds after her time slot was Reflection (Starlight 35), only to be undone by finding a hole in their spinnaker as they hoisted it. Fortunately, they were also carrying their asymmetric so had to resort to that.
Seasoned racer Derek Mayhew on Meribel (Hanse 311) whose asymmetric wouldn't unfurl wasn't having anyone sail over him but the wind was light enough for some friendly banter as Nushaba (Starlight35) sailed underneath and then gave them a lesson in luffing up towards the mud.
As the fleet reached Harwich Harbour the wind built slightly for a beat up the Stour with the tide. By this time one of the later starters, Isaly (Dehler 34) was coming through the fleet with an hour still to go, sailing with novices its laminate sails were a different interpretation of white! However Kasbah was still leading with a healthy margin.
The first part of the trip back up the Orwell was a tight fetch with the tide before a beat back up into Butterman's Bay and the club. As the 4.00pm finish time loomed Isaly was within a metres of Kasbah who held on to win the 'No one caught me' award. This was the first time in three seasons this had been awarded. Kalabash (Rival 36) held on for third with nearly all the rest of the fleet within sight of each other just below the club and around Pin Mill.
On the club lawn afterward a collection was made for Bart's Bash which saw £325 collected which added to the club's Ajax fleet who had also collected £200.