Racing at the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club

Royal Cornwall Yacht Club

First Points Series (Race 1)

At exactly 17.55 on 3 April 2009 the familiarly reassuring, dulcet tones of Sue drifted over the airwaves, welcoming those on the water to the start of the Royal Cornwall YC's 2009 First Points Series. At that time the weather was also reassuring, being overcast with a steady Southerly breeze albeit with an ominous darkening cloud.

All promised well for a good evening's racing, but sadly for one Multihull it was not to be. Looking splendid and moving well Cornish Meadow was manoeuvring for the start-line when disaster struck and she lost her mast. So the start of the season is delayed for her but we hope to see her out again fully restored soon.

For the remainder of the rather limited fleet (the start of the Season seems to have taken some by surprise and it may be it is earlier than the other years) it all went well. Race Officer Phil Sissons has set a tight course, with a particularly good windward leg. Although seeming to be a potentially short race, it proved to be a good length, with most yachts finishing soon after the rain came and
darkness fell.

The IRC Racers had a close race over the line with Bluenose (Martin Eddy) winning on corrected time, followed by Riffraff (Mel Sharp). Amneris (Peter Hackett) managed to overcome Popincoota again on corrected time in the E Class, whilst in the J Class Jitterbug (John Hicks) succeeded in resisting the challenge from Jethro - whose excuse that they were restricted by having a crew of only 2 was not accepted by all.

The Sunbeam class was a clean sweep for Wendy (John Pickup) who was not only first over both the start and finishing lines, but was never headed - a singular performance!

All in all a satisfactory start to the Series with hopefully excellent racing to follow in the months to come. A pleasing innovation was the video of the evening's racing shown in the Clubhouse immediately afterwards, which was much appreciated by both those taking part and
those who watched Whilst not yet America's Cup standard no doubt overtures from Sky will follow! Thanks go to Nick for his camera skills in the RIB.

Page last updated April 6, 2009