Scow Race 4 Report and Notice of Race 5

RACE 4 REPORT from Mary Montagu-Scott

Following the excellent morning of training with Ginna Gayner, Oli Stanley and Jay Devonshire and First Aid with Liz Gedge, (which I sadly missed), we had a good turn out of 15 boats for Race 4 to the ‘Brickyards’, downstream by one large bend in the river. Light North North Easterly wind, sun and neap tides made for a challenging race. With Ginna Gayner on Platform, Andrew Duncan as Race Officer and Bill Vance and Tom Karsten on Safety Duty all went smoothly except for a slightly last minute scrabble to the line by a few late entries for the 3.30pm start.

First mark was ‘P’, left to Port, (named after nearby house ‘Parson’s Mead’), and it was quite a wide, spread out fleet in the light airs. I was stuck on the mud on the western side so found myself at the rear of the fleet at the start but it all looked a very pretty sight to see the sails in front of me. See photos on website:

Frustrating around Dock Head; lots of wind shifts and those at the back came whizzing up from behind to join the leaders. Sitting totally still and having patience is the answer to this situation but I rarely succeed in either of these things. The wind kicked in around Gardiners Ground and took us all, closely bunched up on the down stream stretch, to the finishing line from Brickyards across to the Tukal. Decision time, west or east bank? I went east, others west and with the luck of the gods, the easterly bunch stole the win.

With a gust, we all came in fast and furiously and the platform could hardly keep track of the finishers. Luckily we had great shore-support from Alexander Duncan and Kristen Branford who caught our scows and made them fast.

Sam Van Holte won, myself second with Nick BB 3rd, Charles and Ned Nicholson 4th, Victoria and Ed 5th, Bill Osbourne-Young 6th, and Fiona Duncan 7th with 15th boat, Edie Ashley.

We were greeted with the delightful vision of the Brickyards House in full vibrant Spring colours with our glamorous hosts Sarah and Christoph Brooke having put on a right royal spread of a Cream Tea complete with scones and jam washed down with mugs of tea and glasses of wine. I had both. Non-sailors joined us too and a good time was had by all, rather cut short by the falling tide and the need to beat it back to base.

Many thanks to our hosts, who excelled in their kind hospitality and generosity in the beautiful surroundings of their charming garden. The perfect BRSC day.

By the time we got back in our boats, the wind had settled down and it was a gentle meander home in beautiful late afternoon light. The Beaulieu River at it’s best.

NEXT RACE 5: Sunday 15th May, 11.00

Race Officer John Phipps

Race Starter Oli Stanley

Safety Boat Mike Doherty

Safety Crew Claudia Downes

Tea Hickie Gibbs,

All contributions to the tea table welcome. Thank you.

To book future volunteering spots for the Summer Scow Series, please head over to the website

TRAINING: How to tune your scow with jay Devonshire, Saturday, 21st May, 1400.

USEFUL APPS search for: British Red Cross & what 3 words

Please could you kindly check that the stern covers of your boats are clearly marked, boat name and number, for easy ID . Thank you.

I am away next week, see you on 21st. Hope you have a good race.

Yours aye,

Victoria Bonham Carter
Captain of Scows