“Old Road” Saturday 22nd April
Its possible that the downpour at 3:00 am on Saturday could have been a blessing… as most of us managed to tear ourselves away from the Last Lemming in time to be in decent shape for Saturday’s race – although the weather hadn’t improved by the first start at 10:00 either. With no breeze in sight the fleet of 54 yachts ranging in size from 29ft to 136ft, headed into a flat sky. Maggie B., the 63ft Nigel Irens design gaff schooner had been the first in the Big Boat class to cross the line in Friday’s (largest ever) Single-handed race, and having been launched during a January blizzard in Nova Scotia, I thought she would provide quite an interesting day out. The owner/captain, the sail-maker, the builders, and Mr. Irens himself were crewing the boat together for the first time, and experience proved itself as she came in second in her Classic Class D. 31ft Apsara, won Classic Class A with a corrected time of 154.213, whilst two Laurent Giles designs; 37ft Tiger Maru, and 112ft Blue Leopard, as well as 136ft Herreshoff Eleonora took first in their respective Classic Classes B-D. 44ft Flicka, was the winner of Vintage Class A, followed by the winner of Friday’s Concours d’Elegance - the gorgeously-maintained 107ft Fife design gaff schooner, Altair. 79ft Mariella won Vintage Class C and 40ft Genesis was first in the traditional Class. 41ft Rhodes sloop Sunshine was at the top of Classic Class GRP, while the new locally-built 36ft Fife Nada won her Spirit of Tradition Class A. The 136ft J-class Ranger arrived long ahead of 76ft Annagine, to win her Spirit Class B. Though the course was slightly shortened for the green and brown flag classes, it ended up to be quite an excellent day out as the rain had nearly cleared and been replaced by a pleasant breeze (approximately 12knots average) by the first mark four miles from the start, and didn’t really threaten again until the final leg.