Twenty one starters – and twenty one finishers! What a great turnout for the Stone Trophy race!
Just enough wind from the west at the start, with the usual strong Stone tide. Race officer Wendy Robinson set a long course, E 8 Y, relying on the forecast swing to the east and stronger wind later, but with options for shortening if it failed to happen.
A lazy run down to West Mersea no.3, then a difficult cross tide beat to WM12, almost as bad as in the Blackwater Cup. ‘Ned Kelly’ lost a spinnaker halyard and had to send a man aloft to get it, losing nearly 10 minutes – duly reported to the Chairman.
Once everyone was round, the sea breeze came in, and we were beating in the opposite direction, to WM1, WM2 and a long fetch nearly to the Bench Head, with a short tack to get round it and head up the Colne to no. 8 under spinnakers, with increasing sunshine. The fleet was split into two, as usual, and ‘Aloha’, ‘Caroline’, and ‘Geronimo’ led the fast group at this point. Back down the Colne to the Bar buoy, then North Eagle and a long fetch to the Wallet Spitway.
Heading back to the Knoll, ‘Geronimo’ had got to the head of the fleet, but was it by enough? Kev Knox’s similar First Class 8 was still in fourth position. We do like these legs where one half of the fleet can see how the other half is doing!
More zigzags on the way back – plenty of spinnaker ups and downs, the wind getting up to Force 4, and a nice run to the finish line.
Finish timings were often very close – 2, 9, 15, and 17 seconds the closest – but the result was a Beneteau benefit day: the winner, First 25.7 ‘Aloha’, then ‘Moonshadow’, First 27.7, then two more 25.7s, ‘Easi Rider’, and ‘Dan Dare’. The really fast boats could not quite get far enough ahead in the time.
In IRC, the winner was ‘Blue Moon’, from ‘Monkey Business’ and ‘Evolution’.
BJRC
First – ‘Aloha’ – Nigel Sheppard – Blackwater SC
Second – ‘Moonshadow’ – Sue Sheppard and John Gibson – Blackwater SC
Third – ‘Easi Rider’ – Martin Scarth – Blackwater SC
IRC
First – ‘Blue Moon’ – Richard Robarts – Marconi SC
Second – ‘Monkey Business’ – Dave Onyons -Marconi SC
Third – ‘Evolution’ – Eric Reynolds – Marconi SC
The Series
Still early days, but ‘Aloha’ has a one and a two, at the cost of 18 penalty points, ‘Dan Dare’ has a one and a four, ‘Moonshadow’ a two and a three, and ‘Easi Rider’ two threes. Next are ‘Blue Moon’ and ‘Poohstick’, with 10 points each from 2 races.
In IRC ‘Blue Moon’ has two wins, while ‘Monkey Business’ has a one and a two, but ‘Triton’ has yet to appear on the water …..!
