Summer Series: Race 1 Race Report

We had high temperatures and a near cloudless sky for our first race of the summer series.  A good turn out too – 14 scows and for Simon Gibbs it was his maiden race in his new scow of great heritage; previous owner- John Phipps.  It was quite a long race and for various reasons 3 boats didn’t finish; most notably Charles Nicholson who would have crossed the finishing line first had he not had to retire to go and fulfil his paternal duties. It was a real pleasure to have Natasha Sellars, 10 and Pippa Sellars 8, helming their first scow races with their parents as crew.  They certainly kept us on our toes and had us all chasing them round the course.  Very impressive.  

Race 1 – report from Natasha Sellars

We had a dilemma at the start, stay towards the bank where you had the cleanest wind or sail in the middle of the river where the tide was taking you towards the first mark, Blackwater. It turned out that being in the middle of the river to start with was the best. I (or rather my crew, Martin Sellars) chose to stay towards the moored yachts, out of the tide.

Leaving Blackwater to starboard it was then a downwind run to Island, with Charles Nicholson in the lead closely followed by Jay Devonshire, then Pippa Sellars (crewed for by Camilla), who somehow, despite her being the youngest there, was in the top three!

We did two laps of a course, and in the second one I managed to overtake Nick Bentley-Buckle and was then tailed by him, and Victoria and Edward Bonham Carter all the way round Island then reaching across to North Bank. We rounded Club for the last time, me overtaking Pippa by a few seconds and becoming third place. We then took different angles towards the finish at Royal Southampton YC, Gins, looking across the river to see who would cross the line first. In the end, Jay came in first, (Charles having dropped out) Victoria and Edward coming second and me coming third, and Pippa fourth by about a second. 

We all enjoyed a lovely drink in the sunshine and even some people who hadn’t been racing came to join us. 

Many thanks to Frances and Tim as race officials and to Lucy Markby and Peter Bettridge in the safety boat. 

RACE 2 –       Sunday, 2nd July 11.00 HT 10.43

                          * * *  Briefing 1030 * * *

Starting Platform                Gerry Marling-Roberts

Race Officer                       Andrew Duncan

Safety Boat Team               Peter Bettridge & Rupert Scott

Tea                                    Kindly hosted by Benji & Christian Scrimgeour                                                                 RSVP bscrimgeour@gmail.com

VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES

Race 3 –          Saturday, 8th July 15.30     B H HT 16.17

Starting Platform                Frank McGinn

Race Officer                       Victoria Bonham Carter

Safety Boat Driver              Peter Bettridge

Safety Boat Crew               Keith Hutton

Shore Support                        – slot to fill –

Tea                                   Kindly hosted by John & Carol Hackman                                                                         RSVP carol@hackmanoffice.com

Race 4 –   The Gravelly Race      Sunday, 16th July   B H LT 11.04

1030    Scows    

1040    Lasers

                                 * * *   BREIFING  10.00   * * *

Starting Platform               Ginna Gaynor

Race Officer                      Oli Stanley

Shore Support                    Rupert Scott

Safety Boat  1                    Peter Bettridge & Keith Hutton

Safety Boat  2                                – slots to fill – 

Refreshments                    Kindly hosted by Mary & Rupert Montagu-Scott                                                               RSVP  mary.montaguscott@gravelly.com

Very much look forward to seeing you next Sunday when we pack our passports and head over to the ‘Rive Gauche’ to visit the Scrimgeours. Yours aye, Victoria