WMYC – Race One Report
Sunday 24th May was the first race for the Cruiser racer fleet for the West Mersea Yacht Club & Dabchicks Sailing Club, 11 entries in total which is a vast improvement on last year’s turn out.
Clear blue skies and light winds were the perfect recipe for a good turnout. On Saturday the winds had been very fickle and the sea breeze never kicked in. On Sunday the race committee comprising of Joe Kershaw, Ian Low & Paul Wood had some trepidation and kept their fingers crossed that the wind would stay constant. Yes, it did! It was a steady 10 knots from a south easterly direction. The race committee set the westerly starting line after taking bearings of the three options, westerly proved best. Although it was slightly biased at the committee boat end, but there may have been a stronger ebb tide at the pin end should the competitors choose either option.
John Munn’s with his black Folk boat Pip was the last boat to the starting area having decided to show his keel to the soft mud in the Mersea quarters, there was also a small incident of two boats coming together just before the starting sequence.
The P flag was hoisted at 10.56. A competitive start by most boats at 11.00am with the Richard Matthew’s Folk boat called OC becoming OCS for a few seconds helmed by Drummond Sydenham who went on to sail a fantastic race to finish second overall and only two minutes off the podium.
We had five of the six Folk boats out racing and the club Sonata Scherzo helmed by Alan Jones.
Congratulations to Team Clifton on Aztec for winning overall. Team Drummond with OC as second and Julian Lord with Gremlin for coming third.
Thank you to all who raced, it was a great turn out and something for the committee to build on.
The next race is on 14th June 2026, it is a pursuit race which in the past has proved popular with family run boats.
Please reach out to our Vice Commodore sailing Ian Low at Ianlow65@hotmail.com should anyone be interested in sail training or racing in the club boats.
