“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cleared and been replaced by a pleasant breeze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.