Race Report - Egan Trophy, Ladies' Race and Novice Race

With challenging conditions all weekend, the RTYC race team (led by Peter and Jo Chugg) managed the schedule well to deliver an impressive amount of racing for the "Daring Regatta", held over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Saturday 23 August

Report kindly provided by Simon Broxham, Darius

After a 2 week post-Cowes Week rest the fleet were very grateful to the Royal Thames race team for telling us on Friday evening that we had an extra couple of hours to enjoy our breakfast on Saturday morning. There was a further short delay to allow us all to clear up after the seagull party on our boats, and in the mid-afternoon we set off in a strong ebb tide, with the light wind flitting between the morning's SW and the afternoon's SE. The game of snakes and ladders had begun!

The fleet started downtide on a close reach to Gurnard cardinal. Everybody was appropriately line shy, as OCS would have been catastrophic. Streak and one other started slightly further inshore than most of the fleet and popped out nicely at the front as the fetch turned into a beat, and rounded the mark with a decent lead. 

The white-sail reach North across the Solent, to MDL Marinas, was pretty uneventful. We then bore off onto a run into the tide to Royal Thames (south of the Brambles) which was where things started to get more interesting.

The fleet split widely: with Doublet gybed out to the South side of the course; the leaders and most of the pack followed the rhumb line; and Darius, Dauntless and Diamond stayed higher towards the mainland shore. The shore side had a little more wind and less tide and, with the added help of a better wind angle, the boats on this side sailed around the rest of the fleet. 

Darius gybed a bit too soon, while Dauntless carried on further. She gybed onto a huge ladder and came out a long way ahead of the rest of the fleet in a different wind stream. As their wind swung left, they dropped for a two sail close reach whilst the rest of us still had our spinnakers up on a very slow run. Diamond found a slightly shorter ladder and rounded Royal Thames in a very comfortable second. Dauntless and Diamond then headed off towards Cowes Corinthian, where the race had been shortened, giving a generous allowance for the perceived west-going tide and leaving the rest of the fleet slopping around somewhere near MDL. The leaders were half a mile or more ahead.

This was the point at which some of us remembered our June coaching session with Duncan Truswell (note to self: buy Josh a beer and ask him to book another session next year) where we learned that the times in Winning Tides should be treated with some caution. By the time of our arrival, the tide had changed to east-going and we were saved from being swept past the mark by the arrival of a nice SW breeze filling in from the back of the fleet. Darius rounded third, closely followed by Defender and the pack a short distance behind. While some boats continued to fly spinnakers for a short way (like Diamond and Dauntless had), in the new wind and changing tide it soon became clear that the leg was nearly a beat. At this point Dauntless and Diamond were languishing somewhere in the general direction of Osborne Bay trying to fetch, or even beat, back to the finish in a very light wind.

Darius held off a challenge from Defender and finished first, with Defender second and Dauntless third. An interesting day and well done to the race committee for keeping faith and getting a race in.

The fun was not over yet, however, as on returning to the mooring, Dauntless managed to park herself on the silt inside of the breakwater on a falling tide, and the class was treated to the sight of the class captain trying to push the bows around and off!

Sunday 24 August

Ladies' and Novice Race

There was an excellent entry of eight competitors in the combined race this year:

• Novice Race

  • Thomas Dickson, Dauntless

  • Sarah Rose, Audax

  • Chris Green, Dancer

  • Liza Orchard, Dancer

  • Pete Overton, Streak

  • Anna Kennedy, Debutante

• Ladies' Race

  • Sarah Rose, Audax

  • Liza Orchard, Dancer

  • Emma Barry, Doublet

  • Flore Jambu-Merlin, Defender

  • Ann Kennedy, Debutante

Sadly Audax was not able to race in the morning due, but seven boats lined up for what would turn out to be a short, sharp race. The wind was SE, and a novice-friendly 7-10 knots, although the Medina was causing its typical large Southerly shift. Meanwhile, the flood tide was starting to wane.

The course was published - and then speedily amended after the observant Laurence Orchard pointed out to the race team that he had failed to see one of the marks the day before, and wasn't sure it was in position!

After a feisty start going East towards Royal London, which saw Dancer and Doublet OCS, boats started to fetch towards the mark but as they left the vicinity of Cowes they were all headed and needed to beat to the mark. Doublet (who remained OCS), Streak and Dauntless were first to the mark and rounded to then go NW to South Bramble. While Doublet and Streak simply bore away, Dauntless did a gybe-set. While not entirely deliberate, this turned out to be the winning move, and when the boats came back together Dauntless had made up some lengths and got inside at the mark. Tom steered a nice straight transit on the fetch back to Prince Consort, holding off a determined challenge from Streak, and after a short run back to Trinity he claimed the Novice Race win.

On the water, Doublet (Emma Barry) was the first female helm across the line. However, as she was OCS, Flore Jambu-Merlin on Defender defended her Ladies' Race crown from 2024 when she crossed a minute later.

Race 1

An hour later, the tide had turned and was now well into the ebb. Again, the first mark was Royal London, but now the lee-bow tide when fetching on Starboard meant that the mark could be laid in one.

The Red Jet came through about 90 seconds before the start, forcing the starting plans of some inshore boats into disarray. A little further offshore, boats were less affected and Streak had the best of the start. She then demonstrated, once again, that when going East from the line in a South East breeze, it's usually worth staying offshore despite the tide as the wind inshore can be quite light.

Around the mark it was Streak, Dancer, Dauntless but all started far too low for the reach all the way over Calshot. Once the tide and wind had been properly taken into consideration, they all headed up by 30-40 degrees. Going too far in the wrong direction had reversed the initial rounding order and allowed boats behind to close the gap.

On approaching the mark, Dauntless broke clear ahead and watched as Dancer and Streak engaged in the first of several close-fought luffing battles that would take them about 200m to weather. In the end, Streak re-took second place and, on the beat to the Ryde Middle Bank and subsequent run to the line, held close to Dauntless' wake. Doublet also made good speed, eventually taking third as other boats dropped a little off the pace.

Race 2

As the tide had built to a full spring ebb, against which boats could barely hold station despite the healthy F2-3 breeze, The race committee wisely decided to start to the West this time, with the first mark set as Island Sailing Club, close off the green. Some boats opted to simply hover on the line, pointing in the "wrong" direction, until moments before the gun where they span and headed off downwind.

Some boats had been caught out far downtide, with Debutante later wryly remarking that that she was confused to have been identified as "OCS", as "OTL" (out to lunch) may have been a better description! The same could be said for Doublet but to their credit they both went on to finish the race, despite sailing on their own several minutes behind the fleet.

The inshore boats sailed a shorter distance in better air, and those offshore couldn't hold kites. Dancer and Streak were first around and boats set in for a long fetch up to Royal Thames, on the South of the Brambles Bank.

While a fetch isn't normally a passing opportunity, the length of the leg was such that constant trimming and keeping a clean lane could be made to pay off, and Dauntless made up a couple of places to second behind Dancer. On the beat to West Ryde Middle, Dancer went a hundred yards further than Dauntless before crossing from the Brambles to the Ryde Middle Bank. Both boats had over-stood somewhat though, and Dauntless capitalised to move into first and (after another run and a beat) the race win. Streak remained in third.