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Ship in Bottle Regatta 2023

Published 11:45 on 11 Apr 2023

A bright and early start, 08:30, on a beautiful Easter Sunday morning greeted the dinghy sailors at Coombe Cellars. On arriving the wind was coming straight up the river from the east so setting the course was pretty straightforward for Race Officer Mike Commander. Six races planned over the two days with best 4 results to count.

Race 1 got away cleanly right in front of the clubhouse with the first beat true into the wind. Simon Jones broke free on lap 1 while Peter Hearne and Gary Molton, all in Solos had close racing right to the end.

Race 2 saw the wind track right and a windward mark change was needed. All bar Gary got away cleanly and although Gary attempted to return to the start line he fell well short and unfortunately was later to discover an OCS result - this after fighting right to the front of the fleet only to hear silence as he crossed the line. Malcolm Davies' Solo thus took the first sound signal but it was BrianTucker in his ILCA 4 (Laser 4.6 sounds so much better) that claimed the win on corrected time.

With the wind continuing to track right another course change was required and Paul Heather hastily drew the new course on a newly created whiteboard, handed it to our on the water safety boat team of James Hanafin and cameraman Garnett Showell to show the competitors. With a fast ebbing tide everyone was pushing the line and no surprise to see almost all over the line. Once recalled they all behaved themselves on the second attempt and got cleanly away. This time Gary made no mistake coming home first with Simon second and Malcolm third.

End of Day 1 and three races sailed saw the leader board of Simon Jones on 7pts, Malcolm Davies 8pts and Peter Hearne 10pts. All to play for on Day 2 with both Brian and Gary having two wins a piece and two good discards

The second day was a complete contrast from the first with the wind now coming from the west south west and blowing 15+ knots and by the end of the morning there were loads of white horses with F5-6 gusts. Not many ventured out this time although Paul Heather joined us in his Solo and yesterday's Race Officer Mike Commander really got into his stride in his K1.

John Ewbank took over Race Officer Duty for the day and the first race of the day saw Peter over the start line. Mike was first to the windward mark but chased hard by Malcolm and Brian. Paul took an early swim and retired as the downwind conditions providing some really exhilarating conditions. Two gybes were a challenging for all but the K1 - being greatly helped by the keel stability. Planing in these high speed conditions really gets the blood pumping. After 3 laps Mike's K1 was the clear on-water winner some 6 minutes ahead of Malcolm' Solo and 7 minutes ahead of Brian's 4.6 (or more correctly ILCA 4).

While all this was going on the club's Safety Boat, crewed by David Eales and Neil Warwick were kept busy not just helping our own dinghy sailors but also rescuing some members of the rowing club. Their rowing skiff became waterlogged and had to be abandoned on the north shore of the river.

The second race of the day got underway with just 2 boats starting. Malcolm retired shortly after starting leaving Mike to sail alone around the course and take his second win of the day.

Overall results:

1 Mike Commander, K1 103 4pts

2 Malcolm Davies, Solo 465410pts

3 Brian Tucker, ILCA 4 166592 14pts