Bloody Mary carnage

Full report and results from this weekends big pusuit race

This weekend’s Bloody Mary, the annual pursuit race marathon hosted by Queen Mary Sailing Club, was a test of survival for the 120 or so teams that made it onto the water as gale force winds lashed the south west London reservoir.

Overnight on Friday, further north in the country, 90 mph winds were wreaking havoc and it was a rather reluctant fleet of sailors that arrived at Queen Mary on Saturday morning. Thinking that the day would provide a good opportunity to keep the dinghy on the trailer and catch up with friends it was duly announced in the briefing that the race was on and, albeit with a subsequent delayed start at 12.30pm.

As boats were being unpacked winds were peaking at 45 knots in the gusts, however the decision to go was based on the forecast of moderating conditions during the race. It was however never going to be a quiet day on the water for anyone.

The entry list was to finally top 120 for the two and half hour race - several laps around a long course on the reservoir. An estimated similar number of boats remained firmly on their trailers, or turned on their heels and made their way home.

Chips Howarth and Vyv Townend, 2003 Fireball World Champions, were to come out victors with only 35 boats managing to finish the race. “We were going upwind with all the sails ragging at once, there were boats capsized everywhere,” recounts Howarth on the carnage. “It was absolute survival sailing, you couldn’t relax for a minute because it was so windy.”

Squalls came through at the beginning of the race touching 40 knots, and would abate to a more “manageable” 30 knots in the lulls. Conditions did eventually moderate slightly for the final two laps, but by this time many competitors had retired following numerous capsizes.

Howarth and Townend were not to escape the icy waters either, but managed to get away with just a 15 second dip on one of the reaches. “We were on a two sail reach when a 40 knot squall came through,” Howarth explains. “The jib was ragging, the main was on the shrouds with hardy any kicker on, and I tried to slow the boat down a little with a little stab to windward. I just got this wrong and did the manoeuvre too slowly and the main loaded up, the boom kissed the water and we were in!”

It was a Fireball one - two with Paul Cullen and Jon Ching finishing in second spot. Cullen has frequently been at the top of the Fireball rankings and clearly demonstrated his heavy weather skills.

Howarth thought that the course, and conditions, favoured the older designs of boats like the Fireball over the modern high aspect asymmetric designs. Low down grunt and a more friendly strong wind rig was seen to be a benefit – especially on the reaching, non – spinnaker legs.

Five time Contender World Champion Stuart Jones kept it together to take third position. Young sailors Justin Visser and Simon Wheeler won respect from their peers by being the only 29er to complete the race and the top asymmetric boat finishing in fourth.

Final Pos.	Helms Name	Boat	Sail No.
1st	Chips Howarth	FIREBALL	14830
2nd	Paul Cullen	FIREBALL	14783
3rd	Stuart Jones	CONTENDER	701
4th	Justin Visser	29er	5
5th	Angus Hemmings	FIREBALL	14791
6th	John Gimson	470	8
7th	Nick Craig	RS400	1237
8th	Richard Mason	420	51765
9th	Lucy Macgregor	420	5143
10th	Graham Blake	LASER 3000	3085
11th	Adam Whitehouse	FIREBALL	14725
12th	Geoff Carveth	RS200	751
13th	Craig Burlington	RS400	1215
14th	Michael Hicks	FLYING FIFTEEN	3643
15th	Carl Jeffs	GP14	13793
16th	Steve Coacher	FIREBALL	14877
17th	Tim Hulley	LASER 2000	2854
18th	Rory Barn	RS400	642
19th	Olly Dix	420	51740
20th	Andrew Mills	LASER	180231
21st	J Pearson	LASER RADIAL	8
22nd	Michael Clapp	LASER II	10004
23rd	James Boyce	RS200	738
24th	Jonathan Lewis	RS200	858
25th	Andy Le Grice	LASER	180952
26th	Howard Farbrother	RS400	1251
27th	Iain Mcgregor	LASER	30
28th	Sam Mettham	MIRACLE	3812
29th	Sam Eversfield	TOPPER	44583
30th	Sarah Allen	RS200	880
31st	Graham Kennedy	LASER	174572
32nd	Valentin Nedyalkov	LASER	180278
33rd	Val Millward	2.4M	70
34th	John Draper	YEOMAN	201
35th	Dylan Fletcher	29er	10
35th	Ed Chapman	29er	6
35th	Hannah Tattersall	29er	174
35th	James Stewardson	29er	619
35th	Sophie White	29er	342
35th	Charlotte Lawrence	420	51409
35th	James Ellis	420	51773
35th	James Goss	420	51754
35th	Josh Rumbol	420	51107
35th	Maria Stanley	420	51175
35th	Sophie Wegeulin	420	51369
35th	Melissa Heppell	470	809
35th	Simon Hiscocks	49er	2
35th	Tom Smedley	49er	872
35th	Gordon Thompson	505	8039
35th	Neville Herbert	ALBACORE	6825
35th	Chris Holliman	B14E	690
35th	Danny Boyes	B14E	725
35th	Rien Zilvold	BLAZE	715
35th	Graham Forshaw	BOSUN	2128
35th	Roger Sawyer	BOSUN	1
35th	Richard Gould	BUZZ	492
35th	Ray Smith	BYTE	477
35th	Nancy Jackson	ENTERPRISE	21104
35th	Ross Harvey	EUROPE	357
35th	David Mcgregor	FINN	40
35th	Matthew Larkin	FIREBALL	14622
35th	Vince Horey	FIREBALL	14870
35th	Chris Beddow	GP14	13420
35th	Matt Mee	GP14	13842
35th	Nick Eaves	GP14	13843
35th	David Hitchcock	K6	154
35th	Michael Fawcett	K6	117
35th	Martin Walk	KESTREL	964
35th	Andrew Savell	LASER	178383
35th	George Muir	LASER	158425
35th	Jan Werner	LASER	144821
35th	Jon Smith	LASER	146900
35th	Mark Greenaway	LASER	171779
35th	Michael Dawson	LASER	179275
35th	Phil Bevan	LASER	171544
35th	Stefan Reinsberg	LASER	2
35th	Neil Bennett	LASER 2000	2629
35th	Olly Pickard	LASER 2000	21422
35th	Sam Pascoe	LASER 2000	21080
35th	Edward Cole	LASER 3000	3345
35th	Hugh Maddison	LASER 3000	3279
35th	Sarah Davidson	LASER 3000	3418
35th	Andy Hough	LASER 4.7	65220
35th	Catherine Hough	LASER 4.7	175788
35th	Craig Johnson	LASER 5000	5287
35th	Iain Lewis	LASER 5000	254
35th	Tim Graham	LASER II	10596
35th	A J Dawson	LASER RADIAL	180664
35th	David Thomson	LASER RADIAL	176843
35th	James Silcock	LASER RADIAL	181426
35th	John Peck	LASER RADIAL	155849
35th	Andy Dalby	MERLIN	3555
35th	Graham Scroggie	MERLIN	3621
35th	Joe Mclaughlin	MERLIN	3566
35th	John Bell	MERLIN	3652
35th	Kevin Anderson	MERLIN	3591
35th	Mike Hendy	MERLIN	3346
35th	Nick Scroggie	MERLIN	3592
35th	Oliver Houseman	MERLIN	3560
35th	Richard Battey	MERLIN	3478
35th	Richard Page	MERLIN	3619
35th	Steve Tyler	MERLIN	3641
35th	Ian Kelly	MIRACLE	4000
35th	Peter Horner	MIRACLE	3805
35th	Philip Bailey	MIRACLE	3825
35th	David Wilkins	NATIONAL 12	3481
35th	Graham Camm	NATIONAL 12	3492
35th	Will Henderson	NATIONAL 12	3418
35th	Mark Carleton	RS200	542
35th	Andy Gould	RS300	413
35th	Paul Hillier	RS400	1121
35th	Richard Gray	RS400	1203
35th	Roger Gilbert	RS400	1161
35th	Robert Twat	RS800	843
35th	Mark Mason	SUPERNOVA	507
35th	Adam Laruin	TOPPER	44508
35th	Alex Barton-mills	TOPPER	44954
35th	Alex Cooper	TOPPER	44375
35th	Ben Slater	TOPPER	44174
35th	Frazer Clark	TOPPER	37498
35th	Hannah Carter	TOPPER	44237
35th	James Lovejoy	TOPPER	43126
35th	Joseph Wellerd	TOPPER	44535
35th	Max Richardson	TOPPER	44510
35th	Peter Harrison	TOPPER	43313
35th	Peter Lord	TOPPER	45190
35th	Piers Parfitt	TOPPER	26537
35th	Tom Walker	TOPPER	42831
35th	Mike Jefferies	WAYFARER	7557