Marconi Sailing Club
Membership open to all
2009 - RORC East Coast Race
19 June 2009 – Marconi Sailing Club goes RORC Racing
The cruiser racer members of Marconi-SC took on greater challenges by putting McGregor III on the start line of the RORC East Coast Race this June.
Starting from Harwich at 7pm with a forecast of a westerly F4-5, club members Peter Ward, Ian Ivermee, Andrew Fowler and Colin Leveridge plus two other crew, joined the 27 strong fleet as they set out to cross to Ijmuiden.
Being the smallest boat, McGregor kept well clear of the others at the line and hoisted the small spinnaker for the run along the southern edge of the Harwich deep water channel. Others rocked, rolled and broached their way to Roughs, before dropping the kite to reach up towards N.Shipwash.
Now at the back of the fleet, with 16knots across the deck, the large kite was set and the next mark, some 110 miles distant, was punched into the GPS. Andy (navigator) checked one of his many spreadsheet ready-reckoners, and knowing the amount of effort he'd put into planning the passage, the crew were full of confidence as McGregor set off on a somewhat lower course to the rest of the fleet.
Now into the watch routine, 6 hours on – 3 hours off, as darkness fell, the stern lights of the fleet could be seen to McGregor's port side and first one, and then another began to show green. McGregor was moving through.
By one in the morning, the wind had increased and with it the waves. They were mainly coming towards McGregor's port aft quarter, some confused and some with breaking crests. Gusts of 24 knots across the deck sent McGregor surfing down the waves and with Ian at the helm a speed of 12.4knots over the ground was recorded.
Some time later, and still dark, after the waves had spun McGregor around on a number of occasions, the call for the smaller spinnaker was made. Now half way across the North Sea, the crew began to tackle their first problem. The kite seemed to be stuck aloft! After some careful tugging at different angles the problem was soon clear, the mast head spinnaker halyard block had ripped off its toggle.
Improvisation one was quickly executed and the crew soon had the smaller kite flying off the spare headsail halyard and very little time had been lost in the manoeuvre.
As the crew plotted McGregor's position across the chart, the boat remained within 5 degrees of the rum line and as daylight returned having safely negotiated the shipping channels throughout the night, three boats could now be seen well astern of McGregor with one well ahead on the horizon.
By now, in amongst the well head platforms off the Dutch coast, the wind had dropped slightly and it was time to return to the big spinnaker.
Problem number two. The outer case of the make shift halyard had completely worn away and after white sail sailing for some time whilst options were discussed and decisions made, the steel works of Ijmuiden appeared on the horizon some 29 miles distant.
The crew knew already that this was a big boat race, but with boats behind McGregor the Marconi team came up with improvisation two in order to hold onto the gains they'd made.
A light airs dyneema spinnaker sheet was run up through the mast to replace the damaged 2nd headsail halyard and McGregor was off again flying the big kite from it. The team knew it couldn't last and made plans to execute a manoeuvre that would involve Colin heading up and steering away from the spinnaker, whilst Ann and Wayne would try to get the kite on board before McGregor sailed over it, should the halyard give way. Luckily the plan never needed to be executed.
18hrs 39mins 02sec after leaving the start line off Harwich breakwater, McGregor was flying her Marconi-SC battle flags as she entered seaport marina in Ijmuiden. The first boat home had made the crossing in 12:45:00 and as the crew of McGregor recovered from the rough crossing by downing a few Heinekens at the results ceremony, it soon became clear that others too had had their problems.
One boat still had the last 2m of its spinnaker head flying at the mast, while at least two others had also broken spinnaker halyards.
What a great performance though from the Marconi boat. The smallest and slowest boat in the fleet had finished ahead of other boats across the line and on corrected time, came in 13th place overall and 4th in class.
Well done to everyone on board. It’s great to see the Marconi club raising a challenge to the more established offshore racing clubs.
If you're interested in representing Marconi-SC in cruiser racing, either local, inshore or offshore then contact Peter Ward on 07841014366 or e-mail peter@awardls.com and he'll be able to provide you with more information and/or put you in touch with other club members who are planning to put a crew together.
Follow link to return to Cruiser Racing Reports archive
Page last updated: 09/07/2009 17:16:37