Author: Peter Ward

Marconi’s inaugural Keelboat League Selection Regatta, took place on Sunday 7th May. 3 teams of 4 sailors took part in three identical Robber 3E Quarter Tonners, the Club’s own Ned Kelly, Ian Carruth’s Sundance & Raffles who’s owner Charlie Ball had sailed a tough 8 hour passage from Fambridge to help the club pull off the event. The three teams selected for their racing skill and sailing pedigree from across the club, had, on the previous weekend, participated in the clubs keelboat race training day, facilitated by the RYA and senior race coach Ian Patience, where they honed their crewing skills,…

Last Saturday at a packed BJRC Prizegiving dinner held at the Blackwater SC, Marconi members were presented with trophies and glassware for their wins and places throughout the 2016 season. Andy Ellis and his crew sailing Caroline, winners of the Marconi race on local handicap received the Marconi Cup, whilst the IRC winner, Peter Copsey and team Triton of BSC are the first names on the new Marconi Trophy. Steve Purdue and Monica Wolff joint skippers of McGregor 3 received the Brown Cup as winners of that race and were also awarded with the Rabbit Trophy as best newcomers in…

Marconi-SC have entered a team in the British Keelboat League for the first time this year and the club is not taking its involvement lightly. A small group of our elite racing members have been invited by the sailing sub committee to compete for a place to represent the club in the regional league, that will see the winners competing in the national final in September and in with a chance to represent UK clubs in the Sailing Champions League finals in Switzerland and Italy later in the year. Our members competing for a place to represent the club are:…

Club member and skipper of Ned Kelly, Lydia Coffey finished her season by racing in the RORC Middle Sea Race this week. Lydia, a seasoned offshore competitor, having previously finished the Fastnet Race and the Round Ireland Race, was a last minute addition to Andy Middletons crew racing J109 Jarhead in the final event in the RORC 2016 series calendar. After a spectacular start from the Grand Harbour, Valletta on Saturday lunchtime, by the time Ned Kelly had completed her final Autumn Series race in the Blackwater on Sunday, Lydia was passing through the straights of Messina and heading towards…

Richard Robarts and his team sailing Blue Moon managed to keep sufficient time on Crazy Suzy on a windward leeward course on Sunday to come out as winners of the 2016 Autumn Series. John Littlewoods crew fought hard and finished 2nd in the series but in this last race Brian Pearce sailing Monkey Business managed to squeeze ahead on corrected time by less than a minute. The first year team on Monkey Business were looking over their transom shortly after the start as they needed to pull away from their closest competitors on Ned Kelly. Jane Allison and Lana Clarke,…

This sunday sees the last of the Autumn Series races for cruisers and on a double points race either Blue Moon or Crazy Suzy on local handicap are set to do battle for the series win. Equally competitive is the race for 3rd place between Monkey Business and Ned Kelly and we all eagerly await the outcome of that one. After the race we’ll be presenting the prizes for the Autumn Series, which will be followed by a meeting to discuss the planning of the 2017 season. Please make sure that your crews are on the hard ready to be…

After race 4 in the Autumn Series the Blue Moon leads Crazy Suzy on local handicap by just a few points. The full results are available here. Race 5 in the Autumn Cruiser Race Series will be run on Sunday 16th October. Please make sure that your crews are on the hard ready to be delivered to their boats by ribs at 0930 hours. It’s a high water weekend but with a forecast of a Southerly wind we’ll need to be creative with the course selection to get a beat and a run, but it would be nice to go…

Race 4 in the Autumn Cruiser Race Series will be run on Sunday 9th October. Please make sure that your crews are on the hard ready to be delivered to their boats by ribs at 0930 hours. It’s a low water weekend so our possible courses are therefore limited so we’ll be heading East in search of deeper waters. Once again out neighbours Stone SC have agreed to allow the cruisers to use their race marks. If we meet the Stone SC fleet at one of their marks we need to give them room. If this means that you would…

Race 3 in the Autumn Cruiser Race Series will be run on Sunday 2nd October. Please make sure that your crews are on the hard ready to be delivered to their boats by ribs at 0930 hours. It’s a busy weekend on the river, with a topper open racing in the area of the Doctor and a Musto Skiff open racing in St Lawrence bay. Our possible courses are therefore limited as we don’t want to get in the way of these fleets but our friends at Stone SC have agreed to allow the cruisers to use their race marks.…

The course and information about the start line, sequence and pennant can be found on the document below.