Boxing Day Bottle Race

Questions were asked about the result of the Boxing Day Bottle Race results.  On inspection a data entry error was found, i.e. the start time had been entered as 001300 instead of 130000.  The revised results are posted on the club notice board but the first 4 places were

1st Hurricane 5.9 Phil Marks & crew

2nd Wayfarer Tony Cooper & crew

3rd Buzz

4th Contender

Boxing Day Bottle Race report by Viki, with a thank you from the WebMaster.

Boxing Day dawned bright and brisk & breezy, those of us who live close enough were trying to work out if we could have the excuse "Too Windy". Optimistic as ever we loaded up the car with the appropriate kit plus extra thermals plus entry fee bottle, surprisingly the magnum of fizz had already been drunk. Oh well wine will do.

Up at the club there was various spheres of activity going on, a strong display of strength from the cat fleet 3 Hurricanes and a Stealth (new class of cat). Several lasers were rigging, Buzz's were buzzing, a lone Flying Fifteen (putting the younger FF's to shame) was frolicking and a Wayfarer, who I believe has single handedly run this race & safety boat for the last few years, was busy dealing with a flat trolley tyre.

Ice was being thrown off covers, helms were telling crews the ice was a figment of the imagination or post Xmas drink illusions, which ever was appropriate. Some helms were concerned that crews were actually on the way and not still stuck at an Xmas party !! (what was that about Ferrari dealers)

The only thing that seemed to be missing was the volunteer race team & safety coxswain. Tony (Wayfarer) did say at a last resort he would stand in, Mike Coulson & Viki were contemplating giving up the borrowed ready rigged boat to don the appropriate gear when the Commodore very kindly said he would drag himself away from his family gathering and come and run things. (Thank You Mary)

An announcement was made, planned start time of 1 ish. Chance for another coffee or bacon sarnie courtesy of PJ. Courses were decided upon and then changed in order to accommodate the various classes of boat, a rescue craft was brought up from the boat shed so that when Mike R arrived most things would be ready for him. Minor panic ensued when it was realised that we had the incorrect code to the boat shed!! (fears of mass arrival of Panda cars) Right code found!!

The race was to be a straight forward set of triangles, 4 laps, start up by Windsor Castle inner Orange & black, down to a spar buoy flag off the club house, up to Horton village orange & black inner, finish between orange spar buoy & club pontoon.

There was a bit of confusion on the start line, the odd boat forgetting to check before tacking onto Port!! A Hurricane capsized before the start claiming they had to wash the rigging or was it a practise capsize, just in case !! Some of the gusts were a little bit wicked as the weather forecast said on the board - look outside, cold, gusty, North Easterly ( ? ) .

The race got under way & the faster boats soon cleared the slower boats with out incidence. Phil & Danny (485?) disappeared into the distance, strangely Phil's second boat (115) was next in line. Tom & Sonia (102) valiantly fought on having lost a trapeze wire / elastic in their pre-race capsize. The mono hulls sorted themselves out with the odd capsize as a particularly nasty gust came through.

The race was shortened which I am sure was appreciated by all, as on some legs one froze on others one started to warm up - at least the sheets didn't freeze!!

The results are as follows. Wayfarer 1st ...... Lasers ...... FF .... Hurri's last.

But at least every one went home with a prize including the Race / safety / commodore.