Marconi Sailing Club
Membership open to all
2009 - EAORA Racing Report
SO WHAT SHALL WE DO NEXT ?
Our First season with East Anglian Offshore Racing Association
It was Nov 2008. We’d just completed our 5th year of cruiser racing in the Blackwater Joint Racing Committee series in our Highlander 28, a Julian Everrit design from 1980. Many of the original crew, including the skipper, had learned to sail together over this time and we’d just reached a point where we wanted to test ourselves in different waters amongst another fleet.
We’d ventured out of our river 2 years previously to experience regatta racing, both at Burnham Week and the Haven Ports Sail East event so we knew we still had a great deal to learn.
One season earlier we started to improve our sail wardrobe, with a view to perhaps going EAORA racing. (East Anglian Offshore Racing Association) Jon Sturmer at Dolphin sails was a real help. He spent time describing what EAORA racing was like and what we should do to prepare both the crew and the boat and convinced us that we wouldn’t be out of our depth. We were used to that though, we’d just spent 4 years as tail end Charlie in our own fleet and we fully expected to be at the back if we moved to EAORA.
Over the winter we completed our normal maintenance and repair tasks and worked our way methodically through the safety checklist. Like most cruising boats, we already had most of the safety gear and the biggest jobs we had to do was to replace the guard-rail wire, fit a handle to our hatch and make an emergency rudder. Consequently when it came to safety inspection the only thing we needed to do was to replace our smoke flares as we had the wrong type.
Then we needed an IRC certificate. We’d never had one before but soon found it’s no big deal to get one. We self measured, filled in the online spreadsheet, paid our cash and got a rating. That was it, we were good to go. We didn’t need to get the certificate endorsed (that means get some of the measurements confirmed by an official and have the boat weighed) in order to race, but we thought if we’re going to do enough of the races to count in the series overall, then we might as well get the endorsement. Lucky we did, as it turned out the crew would have strung the owner up come the end of the season if we hadn’t done that.
So we got a few measurements verified by the official measurer and found out that the boat had previously been weighed many years ago for a rating, so we went with that. A few added cupboards and unnecessary trim fitted by the previous owner would make no difference to us, we weren’t going to get that close to the fleet.
So we recruited some more experienced club sailors and off we went to the start line whilst most of the boats on the Blackwater remained tucked up ashore awaiting the onset of Spring.
Race 1: A real baptism of fire. After keeping out of everyone’s way at the start we were off up the Wallet from Mersea in a bitterly cold North Easterly. As the class 1 boats started to move through we slammed, bashed and crashed through the waves until in an otherwise empty sea, a port tack competitor collided with us. Thankfully no personal injuries, only embarrassment all round. So we retired, stuffed a bunk cushion in our hole and limped through the spitway to the finish at the Crouch, to see about making repairs. Welcome to EAORA.
Over the next few days we got offers of assistance and advice on getting the boat fixed from many of the EAORA skippers. The amount of support they gave to us newbies was just great and although we’d yet to finish a race we definitely felt welcome. In the end, Nick and his team from Rice & Cole did a brilliant job. Knowing we wanted to get back on the start for the next race, they got us in and out of the shed, having repaired some glass, in time for us to take the start line for race 3 in the series.
Race 2: Everyone waited for us. Out of the crouch under spinnaker and then off to the Medway. Off Sheppey the wind just died causing the fleet to park while we caught up. 'What a terribly nice bunch this EAORA fleet is' we thought. Waiting to make sure we didn't get lost. We couldn’t believe it, a 2nd overall in our very first race. We were however well behind a much smaller bright yellow boat. The familiar cry on our boat that day had been, 'Where's the Banana boat, come on let's follow him'.
That night we received our induction to EAORA post race hospitality in the Medway yacht club. We were sold. When’s the next race, bring on the party!
Race 3: Back in our box. Next day off to St Katherines in a strong westerly we were definitely put back in our place. Everyone pointed higher. Everyone sailed faster. We were concentrating so much on trying to learn how we might setup the boat differently that we never saw the finish line. Well, that’s what we told everyone else, but truth be known, we were fighting with our spinnaker on one of the few bends in the river that let us fly it. The finish had been set so that it would give time for the slowest boat, us of course, to motor up to St Kath's in time for the lock in. Today they really did wait for us. After getting a ticking off from the harbour patrol for straightening out some of the bends on the Thames, our 7hp got us to the lock just as it opened
Race 4: Tick those boxes. The East Coast Race had only tentatively been on our planned race schedule for the season, but seeing as we'd retired in one race and missed another, we wanted to give ourselves a chance of scoring in 7 so that we could get a series position come the end of the season. We now found ourselves discussing the possibility of racing from Harwich to Ijmuiden, wherever that was! So after spending a pre-race weekend sailing through the night to see if we were up to it, our entry went in.
For most of our crew, the East Coast Race turned out to be the best sailing experience of the whole season. We had strong westerlies, big waves, sea sickness and halyard breakages. During the night, we had numerous wave induced broaches as the boat tripped over itself rushing ahead with its biggest kite flying. Everyone took the new challenges with relish and we crossed the finish line with big grins on our faces. First RORC race. First night race and for some of us, including the skipper, first channel crossing.
Race 5 & 6: More Heavy Airs. The Harwich to Burnham and back weekend taught us even more about ourselves as a crew and our boat. Surprisingly we managed a class win after a long slow beat to Burnham. The lessons learned going up to St Kath's seemed to pay off. It did help that we had Jon our sailmaker onboard to give us a few tips. We paid him back by dunking him in the water whilst executing a spectacular Chinese jibe when leaving Harwich. Poor chaps boots still haven't dried out. Next day however the winds jumped up to 34 knots just as the rest of the fleet rounded Medusa on the way back to Harwich, whilst we were still trying to beat towards it. Unwilling to reef further we turned away to run safely and save the sails but 5 minutes later with the wind more manageable we got back on track, finished the race and then abandoned our plans to sail for home on the Blackwater. Needless to say, we were in last place.
With crew holidays and little racing planned for August we took our boat ashore for mid season maintenance and gave it a thorough inspection. We'd never sailed it so hard and were planning to keep going through to the end of October.
Race 7: A cup of two halves. After our August break one crew member came back armed with numbers and we spent the first half of the Houghton cup (1st day of Burnham week) realising how badly we were sailing compared to the time we were behind the others. So far behind were we that we re-started our clock at the halfway mark, drew a line under all our mistakes and set about trying to win the Houghton Cup 2nd half. We almost got it. The 2nd half that was!
Race 8: 90 miles of nothing to do. After crossing the line off West Mersea on port tack we raced all the way to Ostend without moving the sails across the boat, without a sail change and without a spinnaker. This was clearly a good point of sail for us, and with fewer manoeuvres to make, the potential for losing time was less. We missed the prizegiving next morning though as in our excitement of winning class 3, we'd partied hard the previous night and were still on UK time, so missed it by an hour whilst pigging out on Belgian buns for breakfast.
The return trip was a great deal more eventful as we lost our rudder due to failure of the bracket on the transom. After struggling for some hours to make our way out of the Southern North Hinder shipping channel in the middle of the night under temporary rudder, we had to take a tow back to Belgium to reduce the risk.
We rejected the first tow offered by a massive gas tanker that came alongside. He'd already nearly knocked our rig down with the barrel sized monkeys fist he'd thrown across, and now he wanted to pull us alongside and smash us to pieces as we rocked and rolled against him. Lucky we didn't take his offer, his next port of call was to be Greenland we think.
Look out for a more detailed article in later navigans about rudder loss as I'd like to share the lessons learned with other cruiser members.
Once back in Belgium we then made our way back to Bradwell to retrieve our cars. What a sight we were, all the way on every possible mode of public transport still wearing oilies and some of us still in lifejackets.
We certainly packed a lot of experiences into our first EAORA season and as we look back there's not a great deal that we'd do differently if we were starting over again. In the end the Marconi crew managed a 2nd overall in one race and won 2 races in class. The team also won the Royal Thames YC East Coast Championship class 3, a mini offshore series within EAORA.
In our opinion EAORA racing has something for everyone. Great sport, great hospitality at the host clubs, great camaraderie, and great bars.
'So what shall we do next season?' we asked ourselves again at our crew meeting in November at the end of last season. More of the same we decided, but in 2 years time there's a certain race to a rock off Ireland that we have in our sights.
In 2010 the Marconi crew of McGregor plans to be racing offshore again and as there'll be a number of South coast races in our schedule, there'll be quite a number of leisurely deliver trips that we need to make.
So if you'd fancy crewing on one of McGregor's offshore races, or delivering the boat between races, then get in touch with either myself or one of the regular McGregor crew.
The regular Marconi crew through 2009 were Ian Ivermee (helm / trimmer / fixer). Andy Fowler (navigator / weather router / biscuit fiend). Colin Leveridge (helm / main trimmer / oracle). Peter Ward (helm / victualler / gang master). Who were joined at times by Andy Chidwick (main trimmer / temporary hull breach repairer) Dave Payne (main trimmer / rescue boat coordinator)
Thanks to all the club members that helped to make McGregor's season such a success.
Peter Ward
McGregor III
tel: 07841014366
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Page last updated: 20/12/2009 10:54:18