A family affair

Pete Vincent reports on a successful Bristol Corinthian YC traditional New Years Day Pursuit Race

Visitors from Clevedon SC, Lyme Regis SC, Portishead YC and Thornbury YC swelled the number of boats to just over 50 for the Bristol Corinthian YC traditional New Years Day Pursuit Race. After a very frustrating second half of December when three successive race days were lost to flat calms it was a huge relief to find a fairly steady 6-10 knots from the east.

Once all classes were started it soon became obvious that this was not going to be a day for the high performance skiffs and the slow boats were going to take some catching. Anthony and James Willcock from Clevedon in their Mirror were the first boat to start and had made very good ground with efficient use of their spinnaker on the long reaches. The BCYC Solos of Mark Tinker and Peter Knight along with the OK of Ian Harris were also doing very well but were struggling to pull in the Mirror. At half way it was clear the only medium handicap boats that could challenge were two of the BCYC RS200’s and the Jarvis brothers from Portishead in their Fireball.

Once Paul and Pat Teague had got the better of Pete Vincent crewed by daughter Liz Teague in the RS200 fight then they started to make big in roads particularly as the wind eased for a period on the long broad reach. Although the Willcocks twins held the lead until late into the race they were not going to repeat their Lloyd Friar memorial pursuit race victory at Portishead. The Teague’s caught them with ten minutes to go and went on to win by a huge margin from Pete Vincent/Liz Teague equally comfortable in second. Behind these two there was a wide variation of classes with the Jarvis brothers just getting through to third in the last couple of minutes.

The Willcock boys finished a very credible 6th and were first juniors. Lynn Billowes in a Laser Radial was first lady helm. Tom Halhead/Christian Humphry easily won the cock up award for richly entertaining the fleet with their noisy capsize on the tight reach.

Many thanks to BCYC for laying on an excellent spread of food for competitors; a good way to start the year. As a final foot note Mrs Jefferies, RS200 would like everyone to be aware that she beat Chris Bishop in his B14 (it does not happen too often!!)

1. Paul Teague Pat Teague RS200 Bristol CYC
2. Pete Vincent Liz Teague RS200 Bristol CYC
3. Colin Jarvis Derek Jarvis Fireball Portishead YC
4. Ian Harris OK Bristol CYC
5. Mark Tinker Solo Bristol CYC
6. Anthony Willcocks James Willcocks Mirror Clevedon SC
7. Jerry Rook Alice Rook Albacore Lyme Regis SC
8. Tom Halhead Christian Humphrey RS800 Bristol CYC