Phantoms on the Crouch

Victory for Lawrence Crispin

Light and variable winds greeted the eleven visitors joining eight club boats for a weekend's racing on the River Crouch. The first race proved to be a testing time as the gradient breeze faded with the turning of the tide, leaving competitors battling to hold onto places and their nerve. Lawrence Crispin kept his cool and won from local helm John Torrance on a shortened course. Half the fleet were unable to finish as the tide strengthened and the wind weakened.

The second race got under way in a better sea breeze and was a quicker two-lap race, more to the liking of Alan Burrell who kept Crispin back in second place. Neil Fulcher was a model of consistency with third places in both races.

Sunday's racing started with some debate as to the seriousness of the proposed course. The first mark of Branklet spit marks the mouth of the River Roach, four and a half miles upwind and against the tide, requiring short tacking all the way, before a fast broad reach up the River Roach and back again. A strengthening sea breeze ensured that the tide could be bettered, and the fleet soon split up into a series of slogging tacking duels, with the leading boats again being Crispin and Burrell, with Fulcher and Argent in pursuit. This was the finishing order after several place changes on the off wind return leg to the club line.

After a break for lunch the class showed that its reputation for hard racing was not unfounded, with a taxing course requiring the rounding of a single mark being set, with the option of going round it which ever way looked best. Unfortunately for the competitors this mark was Bridgemarsh Island, which lies upriver from the club, and is accessed via a narrow and shallow creek with a small marina at the mid-way point.

The majority of the fleet elected to use the best of the strengthening breeze to take the downwind leg through the creek against the tide, and beat back downriver upon returning to the Crouch below Fambridge. Alan Burrell made the best of the challenge to take a win from Phil Argent, with Crispin third.

At the end of the weekend Crispin and Burrell were tied on points, but after the application of the tie break rules the meeting went to Crispin.

The hand crafted Creeksea Classic trophy for the first wooden boat with a metal rig went to Colin Barrie, who had also travelled the furthest to attend the event. He also showed the class that a carbon mast is not essential as he finished seventh overall.

Results
1st Lawrence Crispin Stone SC
2nd Alan Burrell Thorpe Bay
3rd Neil Fulcher Stone SC
4th Phil Argent Stone SC
5th John Torrance Creeksea SC