Royal Cornwall Yacht Club Events

Sunbeam Championships

Falmouth 2009

To help celebrate 85 years of Sunbeam sailing in Falmouth, three intrepid Itchenor boats, Danny, Penny and Mystery made the long way down by road to Cornwall.

With the efficient support of Mylor Harbour, all three boats were quickly launched, and there then followed a period of head scratching as everyone tried to remember how to rig the Kitty gear on their boats. The Itchenor boats joined in with Friday evening’s club racing to ease nerves and get familiar again with the black art of handling the Kitty gear.

Saturday dawned bright, if a little chilly with a reasonably constant 3 to 4 breeze. Three windward-leeward races were sailed in the bay outside the harbour; there then followed a spectacular display of Sunbeam sailing by Danny with three first’s in a row. This gave her an unassailable lead in the championship that was never challenged over the rest of the event.

Sadly not all the Itchenor fleet had such a good first day and Penny caught a runner round a spreader on the second race which immediately broke the mast bracket. However, with the aid of Mylor, ‘Team Itchenor’ found a bracket on an old broken mast, removed it, and replaced the damaged one. A feat of luck and determination in itself, but this was all achieved on a ladder with the mast still up.

Competitors were greeted on Sunday morning with heavy sea mist seriously reducing visibility and forcing the first two races to be run in the harbour. The previous day’s effort to repair Penny’s mast was rewarded when she took first place in the first race by a clear margin, surely a fairy tale result.

Danny did not have things her own way, but still managed three third’s giving her the Championship. A ‘friendly’ series of three team races was arranged for the following Tuesday between the two fleets. Falmouth boats were short of crew so Itchenor sailors were pressed to help out. Itchenor emerged as the winner in a good natured fun days racing in perfect conditions. Rumours of the pressed Itchenor crews trailing buckets on ropes were found to be completely unfounded.

Thanks must go to our friends in Falmouth for their kindness and hospitality which made the event so memorable for everyone. No doubt they are already planning to return to Itchenor for our 90th celebration to get revenge; they will be made most welcome, we hope we can come close to giving them as good an event.

Page last updated: December 29, 2009