A beautiful day, Saturday 17th May, met the eight entrants for the Merlin Rocket Vintage Series open sponsored by Craftinsure at Tamesis, battling for the Southcott and Porteous Cups.
A slightly shifty (it's Tamesis, what do you expect?) slight nor' easterly breeze provided near perfect conditions as the five minute gun went, so steady did it seem that one intrepid boat went to have a look at the first mark and then, with two minutes to go, the wind disappeared, leaving them OCS by about ten yards when the hooter went.
The wind meant a beat downriver to Lensbury (set in sight of the clubhouse) and a (just about) spinnaker reach back upriver towards Kingston Bridge, beyond the island (Steven's Eyot) to the downwind mark, Canbury (well beyond sight of the clubhouse).
Andy Harris and Sara Warren (607) made it round the top mark first, closely pursued by fast improving Tim Medcalf and Charlie Morgan (1028).
Masquerade and Avenger were 3rd and 4th after the first lap, and these were the only two boats to change places by the end of the 2nd and last lap.
Andy came home a good few lengths ahead of Tim, with Ken Duffel and Joe Woods in Avenger in third.
For the second race the OOD (Peter Fryer) brought the bottom mark in a bit so that we could get three laps in. The wind stayed the same (a special Tamesis version of 'the same'). All were clean away for a grand spectacle from the bank - eight vintage Merlin Rockets (all in beautiful condition) with a combined age of around 300 years, engaged in a close-quarters tacking battle.
Andy and Sara once more sailed away to win, this time with Matt and Arthur P-J coming second in 995 and brothers Peter and Richard Mason coming third in 847.
A brief lunch ashore before the third and final race of the day. Conditions unchanged, no sign of the seal, and no catastrophic breakages enabled all eight to start once more with a repeat of the second race's start, all clean away and close-quarter tacking all the way to the first mark where the first four boats went round within inches of each other, line astern.
The wind became fitful, so the ability to spot streaks of ruffled water became a required skill. At one point Andy and Sara were over a hundred yards ahead, then sailed into a hole just before the second rounding of the windward mark allowing Mat P-J and Tim Medcalf to close up, almost within touching distance.
Another slightly less shy spinnaker reach along the Middlesex shore (and right alongside the clubhouse) and back upriver to the Canbury mark.
When the boats hove into view for the final time it was once more Andy and Sara in the lead having re-established a margin of five minutes over Tim in second and then Matt P-J an extra becalmed minute and a half behind that.
No question as to who would take the two cups home - Andy Harris and Sara Warren in the beautifully maintained Crescendo, a mere slip of a girl at 70 years old.
Overall Results:
Pos Boat Sail No Helm Crew R1 R2 R3
1st Crescendo 607 Andy Harris Sara Warren ‑1 1 1
2nd Crossbow 1028 Tim Medcalf Charlie Morgan 2 ‑4 2
3rd Masquerade 995 Matt Peregrine‑Jones Arthur Peregrine‑Jones ‑4 2 3
4th Bambusa 847 Peter Mason Richard Mason ‑5 3 4
5th Avenger 1004 Ken Duffel Joe Woods 3 5 ‑6
6th Chimp 1357 David Baker Carolyne Vines ‑6 6 5
7th War Horse 1939 Peter Impey Tom Low 7 7 ‑8
8th Lady Anne 1978 Sel Shah Jemma Horwood ‑8 8 7
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