East Coast Race

The morning started dull and windy with the forecast F5-6, occasionally F7. No-one was sure we would get to race at all, but we made our way to the start line by Bateman's tower. As usual, the hard question was how much to reef. I decided on one turn round the boom. This mean't we were carrying much more sail than most of the boats our size but Robinetta is heavy and deep and needs all the pull she can get.

We tacked back and forwards avoiding other boats, sometimes by a very small margin. We didn't manage to tune into the right channel to get the race advice but we heard the guns and it got off to a really good start near the front of the pack. The fast boats soon left us behind and we found ourselves in a little race of our own with Plum and Ellen. Julia on Ellen told us it was course 2 which was basically out to Clacton and back, but not going out to the Spitway buoy where it could be expected to be rough. Nominally an 18,5 nm course. The sun came out and there was lots of blue sky so although windy it was really very nice and calm running out of the Colne.

Our little pack jockeyed for position, sometimes getting very close indeed. Colin, single handed on Plum easily kept up with us, or led. We found ourselves on the outside turning at Colne Bar and the others got ahead but we kept up pretty well. From Colne Bar to Clacton Pier was a glorious reach – heaps of wind with the tide pushing us along – we hit at least 7 knots over the ground and Alison got the sails trimmed nicely so the helm was really light.





The big smacks had started 15 minutes behind us and passed us soon after Colne Bar. It was a fantastic sight. Pioneer looked particularly fine, carrying her topsail over reefed main.

The turning point was a specially positioned race buoy which we had the accurate position of, but along with most of the boats we just assumed it would be near the pier. As we got nearer, we saw the leading boats crossing in front of us and realised the mark must be further out. We adjusted course and this helped us recover some of our position relative to Plum and Ellen. In fact, we rounded the buoy just behind Deirdre, Plum and Ellen and in front of the pretty little lugger Constance.

Constance

Suddenly the wind came up and the seas became less friendly. Of course, we were now heading into the tide component of the waves. We immediately felt less comfortable and considered another reef. I tried putting one in but we didn't want to slow down and I only got a couple of inches in. Alison was getting tired and I took the helm. We were really heeling now and the water was coming in under the leeward bulwarks but it felt safe.

The leading classic bermudans who had left 30 minutes behind us now passed us. Not all the bermudans caught the gaffers today. The only upwind leg was the final beat up the Colne to the finish line so the theoretically better downwind performance of the gaffers was working in our favour.

The reach back to Colne Bar was a bit more stressful than the outbound leg. The wind was stronger and we had the tide against us so the seas were also less friendly. We very gradually gained ground against Deirdre and Ellen but it was hard work.

We now needed to plan where to turn up-river. Many of the leading boats seemed to be going a very long way up the Blackwater. I knew we needed to go some way, since the wind would be on the nose going up river but I couldn't understand why they wanted to go so far. I didn't want too many short tacks – Robinetta had shown us again last month in the Crouch that short tacks are her weakest point – she needs a decent amount of way on for the main to start to pull.

Then, as we approached Bench Head we came under a nasty rain cloud. The wind came up and the seas knocked us back and it became very hard to control the boat. The others were having problems too but they were already reefed down quite hard. We dropped the peak to kill the power in the main and let off the staysail halyard. The wind was too strong to think about furling the jib without going onto a run and we were still racing! I gave the helm to Alison and reefed the main right down to the bottom hoop and then she went forward and pulled the staysail down properly and made it fast. Luckily, that was enough to bring the boat back under control. It was definitely blowing a steady force 7 for several minutes. We had managed this without actually stopping but we still had to decide when to tack. Deirdre was still heading west and Ellen had fallen off the wind towards the Buxey sands. There was a line of boats coming in on a shorter line and we decided to go with that.

Then Alison noticed the frapping line was wound round the port jib sheet. We couldn't tack until that was sorted. It took a while and we didn't manage to sail properly while it was being sorted. When we did tack we found ourselves heading straight back to Colne Bar so we kept that one quite short. The squall had passed so we put up a bit more main and raised the staysail again. During all this messing around, we were caught up and passed by Janty.

Luckily, the tide was now pushing us up the Colne, and we managed several reasonably long tacks up the river, making on both legs. We had a little race with Janty for a while, but she decided to go much further on the east tack than we did and we lost her. With no working echo sounder we used a combination of the GPS chart and Alison's geologists eyes to decide when to tack. It seemed to work well. Suddenly we spotted Ellen again. She had taken a very different line but after a tack or two, we found ourselves heading NW towards the No. 8 buoy with Ellen just in front.

We now had a real race to the finish. Melvyn and Julia are good friends, but a race is a race! Melvyn put his big staysail up and we beat into the Colne, neither boat giving any ground.

The port winch was giving its usual problems and the handle hit me in the face twice, but Robinetta was tacking really well. We did slightly shorter tacks than Ellen and had to put in one extra one but I think this must have kept us in the main tidal stream because we ended up in front. The river bends to the left past the entrance to Brightlingsea creek so the last tack left us with a straight reach past the finish line. We finally heard the horn and then one for Ellen a few seconds behind. I don't know who has the lower handicap – I wonder where we come on the final ranking!

When we got back we heard that many boats had retired from equipment failure or because they were too light for the wind conditions. We felt very pleased with our boat, and for once, happy with our seamanship.