Bloody freezin' Mary

Andy Nicholson reports as 255 boats compete in the annual pursuit race around Queen Mary

When it comes to running Open events in January, you have to really keep your fingers crossed for some good weather. That is exactly what greeted the organisers for the 30th annual Bloody Mary Pursuit Race held at Queen Mary Sailing Club on Saturday, bright, with 10-16 knots of chilly northerly.

An anticipated turn out of 200 was well exceeded as the final entry list numbered 255 boats, ranging from an 18 Foot skiff through to a Miracle and including representatives from pretty much every active dinghy racing class.

The race is a mainstay of the winter calendar for many enthusiastic sailors, many of whom come from all over the country to catch up with friends in the depth of winter. The race was originally put on to coincide with the London Boat Show, so that sailors visiting the show also had an excuse to bring their boats to London too. The relationship with the Show is now much less important as for many dinghy sailors the Sailboat Show in March is the one that really interests them.

The race has also changed, with a drop in junior entries. Charles Wand-Tetley, General Manager of QMSC explained “With the race being two and half hours long, many juniors, sailing their Cadets, were just finding it too long and so the number junior entries have been falling away. The Topper is now the slowest boat which starts off the race.”

By starting with the Topper, this gives the rest of the fleet and additional fifteen minutes of racing which Charles says is important: “Modern asymmetric classes are much faster boats now and this situation [no Cadets] means that they get a better value, longer race”.

QMSC have not just forgotten their younger sailors and have introduced the Junior Bloody Mary for this year, which will run in February and solve the issue for all concerned.

The organisation of the event is impressive; the car park resembled the neatest Roll-on-Roll-off ferry parking ever seen. All so that everyone could get a quick get away after the racing was over. For QMSC members though this comes at a price, in addition to the eight full time staff who work with Charles there are upwards of 60 club volunteers helping out, many foregoing the racing themselves.

Racing started at 12 midday for the Toppers and it was anticipated that the first boats to get away into clear air could hold the advantage for some time to come. Quick trapeze boats like the 420 and 29er were also identified as potential winners by race commentator Mark ‘Mad Jack’ Nicholson.

The race course was effectively a continuous lapping of the perimeter of the reservoir, with an additional beat thrown in. The breeze, being out of the north, meant that the top of the beats were light and shifty near the breakwaters. This resulted in the bottom of the runs being quite breezy and where most of the shouting was to be heard.

The Toppers did get away early in the race, but it was the Fireball of Andy Smith and James Meldrum who stood out early as a boat on the move. Leading 420 on the first lap, being very well sailed was that of Oliver Dix and Philip Lasko of Hayling Island SC. The easily identified Cherub of Gavin Sims and Simon Goodwin was also on the move through the field.



Halfway around the second lap, about an hour into the race, it was the Topper of Ben McVeigh ahead of his brother Oscar by about 100m. A great bit of sailing by Roger Gilbert and James Stewart, in their RS 400, saw them round in front of big group of boats and head of onto the reach at the south end of the reservoir having picked up at least 20 places. They carried down some extra pressure on the left hand side of the run and came into the bottom mark fast, and on starboard.

This was a good indicator that the fast asymmetric boats, such as the RS 800 and 49er could do well as the breeze was holding up and keeping the asymmetric boats planing.

Back at the front and it was Sam Mettam and Geoff Philips in a Miracle vying for the lead with the McVeigh’s in their Toppers. Gavin Sims was, however, now hot on their heels in his Cherub.

All the fast boats were now roaring around the course, including Ian Martin in his 18ft Skiff. For some reason many boats simply got out of his way! The RS 800 of Barrie Edgington and Chips Howarth were leading the charge in close company was the International 14 of Jeremy Sibthorp and Jason Merron. Tucked in, near the front now were Dave Evans and Rick Peacock, in their 29er, sailing extremely well.

And so to the last ten minutes and it was shaping up to be a great finish to the race. One of the last boats to start was the 49er of Andy Rice and Nick Murphy, but it was the final run where they overtook their 200ish boat of the day to gain the lead into the finish. Gavin Sims and Simon Goodwin held onto second place in their Cherub. It was neck and neck between the ‘old hands’ of Barrie Edington and Chips Howarth and the ‘young pretenders’ Dave Evans and Rick Peacock. The RS800 just squeezed ahead over the finish line as they went into a capsize, leaving the 29er crew to dive around them and protect their well earnt fourth place from Jeremy Sibthorp in his 14 who finished fifth.

Barrie Edgington explained their finish, “I’m absolutely knackered and that showed on the last few manoeuvres. Chips is getting on a bit now, he used to be a young gazelle. We had to shove the boat into a tack to cross the line, Dave Evans was right on our transom so we just threw in the tack, managed to cut the line as we capsized.”

Nick Murphy, 17, who crewed for Andy Rice, was really pleased with his first race in the 49er and as a former 29er sailor was quick to praise Dave and Rick on their result, “The 29ers gave us a really close race, but we just managed to get past Dave on the last downwind leg”

Race winner (and contributor to The Daily Sail) Andy Rice, who was 17th at the 49er Worlds last year, explained that it was a day for the fast asymmetric boats, “The advantage with the 49er is that it has a much bigger rig and you can sail through people to leeward and not suffer too much on speed. We just managed to stay away from other boats and there was enough breeze to keep up planing all the way around.

If your sailing a medium paced boat, you’re stuck with a lot of other boats going a similar sort of speed. With these sorts of races you have to be either in a fast boat or, if it’s light, in a much slower boat to win.”

Slowly but surely all the crews made it back to the club house and dragged their boats up in the dinghy park, got packed away and into the bar for some warmth and a beer.

The event this year can only be summarised as hugely successful, earning the QMSC a tidy sum for all their hard work and giving all the sailors some great racing the middle of winter. Remember if you’re a junior, you can still enter the Junior Bloody Mary in February, just leave the Playstation 2 for another day.

	Helm	Crew	Class	Club
1	Andy Rice	Nick Murphy	49er	Datchet Water
2	Gavin Sims	Simon Goodwin	Cherub	Neyland/Cardiff Bay
3	Barrie Edgington	Chips Howarth	RS800	HISC
4	Dave Evans	Rick Peacock	29er	British Steel SC
5	Jeremy Sibthorp	Jason Merron	Int 14	Itchenor SC
6	Neil Ashby	Jeremy Davis	RS800	HISC
7	Sam Mettham	Geoff Philips	Miracle	Royal Naval SA
8	Roger Gilbert	James Stewart	RS400	Frensham Pond SC
9	Kimball Morrison	Nat Holloway	Int 14	Itchenor SC
10	Paul Cullen	Gavin Tilson	Fireball	Stokes Bay SC
11	Andy Smith	James Meldrum	Fireball	Notts County SC
12	Chris Jennings	Ed Nicklin	RS400	Burghfield SC
13	Colin Smith	Jeremy Warren	Int 14	Itchenor SC
14	Paul Jenkins	Colin Hatton	RS800	Weir Wood SC
15	John Meadowcroft	Katy Meadowcroft	Nat 12	Henley SC
16	Simon Potts	Liz Pugh	Merlin	Shustoke SC
17	Richard Instone	Marc Cheshire	GP14	Downs
18	Chris Catt	Mark Heather	29er	Downs
19	Andy Pearce	Rachel Keeling	Fireball	British Steel SC
20	Patrick Blake	Alex Jackson	Merlin	Cookham Reach SC