Five OKs sailed for the OK Championship on Sunday 3rd November with the three regular OK sailors, Jerome Dreux (2007), Andrew Boxer (2196) and James Long (2094) joined by Gareth Jones (2115) and Gary Adshead (1998).
Winds were light from the south-east with a strong river current (EA yellow river state). The course involved a reach up to the bend with a run downwind to round the A Buoy, positioned in the middle of the river to starboard. Tacking back down the river the boats had to round the B buoy on the Berkshire bank to port and then back to starboard around the C buoy positioned in the middle of the river just below the end of the jetty.
Racing was initially delayed as winds were too light for sailing against the current. After a short wait, the wind picked up slightly and Ken Fidler, the OD, decided that the racing could start with an initial 40-minute shortened race.
Gareth got a good start in the first race and held a healthy lead ahead of Gary. Andrew and James battled for third early on and Jerome trailed after a poor start and missing some of the light gusts the others benefited from. All the boats hugged the Berkshire bank up the course to avoid the strong river current and luckily the top of the course had a decent amount of wind allowing few tacks back to the B buoy. Andrew had a good middle of the race and pulled away from James and started catching Gary but the wind eased towards the end of the race and it finished with Gareth with a 2-minute lead over Gary ahead of Andrew, James and Jerome after four laps.
The wind was lighter for the second race and there was some serious close jockeying for the best start position after the problems at the start in the first race and Gary got a perfect start. Gary held a good gap up the Berkshire bank with Gareth, Andrew, James and Jerome battling closely. The going was very slow up the course and all the sailors tried to hug the bank as close as they dared. Two thirds of the way up the first leg of the course Andrew unfortunately got too close and got trapped in some rushes below a tree, had to navigate back out into the stream losing valuable time and dropped behind James and Jerome. Gareth pulled away from Andrew, James and Jerome as they rounded the A buoy. Some excellent sailing saw Andrew retake both Jerome and James on the return leg. He started the second lap in third and started to catch Gareth on the reach up the Berkshire bank whilst James and Jerome got stuck at the club jetty as the wind completely died. Gary still held a healthy lead.
One of the hazards up the Berkshire bank was a Dutch barge positioned before the bend and Gareth and Andrew both got stuck in a wind pocket next to the barge and stood still allowing James and Jerome, who were separated by a metre up the bank to close in. All four sailors then got stuck in the dead zone until James and Jerome floated back out into stream and picked up a lucky light gust which carried them both past. As this was happening Gary had rounded the top buoy and was now tacking back down the course to win. As he was tacking he put in an extreme tack and capsized the boat. In doing so, the rudder parted company with the boat and Gary couldn’t get back into the boat as it kept rolling back over on him as tried to clamber in. As he was attempting this unfortunately he missed the middle buoy and floated over the finished line as a DNF. So having started the last lap at the back of the race James and Jerome were now battling for the lead. James eked out a lead up round the bend and up the Berkshire bank but now had to round the top buoy against the current and with little wind. Both sailors considered how far above the buoy to leave the safety of the bank and sail out into the current, James got it wrong and touched the buoy as he rounded it, having to serve his penalty. Whilst serving the penalty Jerome took the lead and held on the close haul sail back down the course to take the win. Gareth and Andrew trailed home having eventually managed to get out of the dead zone.
Gareth Jones took the overall win and the OK Cup with a first and a third, ahead of Jerome, James, Andrew and Gary.
