Scow Challenge Cup: Race 1 Saturday, 15th March 2025. 11.00

Wind :  NE veering Easterly, 11-12 knots, gusting 15-18 knots.

RACE OFFICER :  Oli Stanley   PLATFORM:  Gerry Marling-Roberts

Race Report : Victoria Bonham Carter

COURSE:  Pp Ap Dp Cp Bs X 2

Fluffy clouds and sunshine greeted us for the first race of the year at Factory Field last Saturday; a good turnout of 8 scows, ship-shape and tested for buoyancy by Jay Devonshire.  It felt so good to be on the water again – much ‘cobweb blowing’ needed.

Oli Stanley set an excellent course of twice round the above.  Red and Chloe Johnson had a very good start, hotly pursued by Tim Robinson with Lizzie Anders hard on their heels.  Ian Rawlings and Karl and Zoe Liebat were middle of the pack, while Mary Montagu-Scott, Edward and myself and Darren Firth dealt with the frustrations of a slow start having lost the wind on the line. Maddening.

The Johnsons and Tim continued to extend their lead after the second mark, but sadly Lizzie, who’d been doing a stirling job chasing them down river with their tell-tales in her sights had an unfortunate loss of speed being too near the west bank and lost valuable ground.

It was then a nice reach down to D chasing the leaders with the Liebats and our boat ‘Ratty’ jockeying for position. We had some exciting gusts, thrills and spills and some of us took on water which all added to the amusement. The wind took my hat but luckily Lizzie spotted it in the reeds and the safety crew kindly retrieved it for me. 

Mark C is always a tricky, challenging buoy to round when there is a hint of an Easterly as it is tucked in near the trees by the Starting Platform. The wind seems to fade as you approach it from down stream so quite often it pays to sail above it and sneak down on to it and hope you can keep the momentum going before the wind fades.  Not so lucky this time and a few of us were caught out here and wasted time trying to round it.  By now, Red and Chloe and Tim were mere specs in the far distance enjoying their own race.

Half way through the second loop of the course Edward and I found ourselves jostling for second place with Tim at mark D – the Johnsons were way ahead at this point.  A faster course to C paid off and from then on a good run to the line gave us second place.  Karl and Zoe then chased Tim and came in a joint 3rd. ‘Never known a joint line call on the river before’, said Gerry. Darren was a well deserved fourth.  Unfortunately Lizzie, Mary and Ian failed to leave mark B to starboard and were disqualified. They didn’t seem to mind too much, it was just so good to be back on the water.

Frances Robinson had set up a perfect tea table with apple cake and sherry toddies provided by Mary.  There was much jollity and catching up on the past 5 months of hibernation. Our new Scow Captain, Karl Liebat, thanked our volunteers Gerry and Oli on the Platform and Sam van Holthe and Lucy Markby for safety cover.

Such was our enjoyment of the morning that we unanimously felt we would have liked to squeeze in another race and Mary came up with the good idea of having a short training race before THE RACE – an excellent idea. Novices would get a chance to to familiarised themselves with the course and gain experience.  Very much hoping to see twice as many scows on the river for Race 2, it really wasn’t that cold!