Eight sailors sailed for honours in the first race of 2022 at Cookham Reach Sailing Club. The race was held in light north to north-westerly winds and followed the Champagne Party. Race officer Clive Church assisted by Tricia Evison set a challenging and unique course with six buoys set up the river, each buoy had to be navigated around to port once before returning to sail around the C buoy set below the start/finish line and also sailed to port. The OK sailors got the best start with Gary Adshead (OK 1998) and Clive Evison (OK 1695) starting well close to the Berkshire bank and James Long (OK 1990) starting well further across to the Buckinghamshire bank. James’s course across the river on a starboard tack meant he called on several of the sailors as he reached the Berkshire side and gained an advantage and early lead. The winds were lightest in the lower stretch of the course and many sailors hugged the Berkshire bank with roll tacks up the course, whilst Gary sailed towards the bend on a port tack across to the Bucks bank. By the bend, James, Gary, Martin Evans (LN 150) and Clive were closely matched with Andrew Boxer (OK 2196) and Jerome Dreux (OK 2007) a little behind and Nick Reuter (L 125425) and Martin Church (LN 122) battling just behind them.
At the bend, Gary passed James as they both sailed up the Bucks bank towards the first buoy with Clive and Martin sailing further out in the stream and Andrew now closing up. The first buoy was difficult to judge for all the sailors and they had to sail a fair distance above the A buoy due a combination of wind direction and river current. Gary rounded it first with Clive second, James third and Martin fourth. After rounding the buoy they started the long journey back downwind and downstream to the club jetty to round the C buoy. Initially, all the sailors found that a starboard run worked best, but James managed to jibe on to a port reach and gained some ground on Clive on the lower part of the course. The positions remained the same as they rounded the bottom buoy and headed back up stream to the B buoy. On these tacks, the two lead OKs pulled away with Martin passing James for third and James dropping back into a battle with Jerome and Andrew. The winds were now variable with light winds and occasional breezes with the wind still strongest above the bend.
On the return to the C buoy, James turned just ahead of Jerome but clattered into him with a misjudged tack just after the buoy, pushing Jerome on to the buoy. James served his two rotations and Jerome a single one allowing Andrew to pass both and James to resume behind Jerome with Nick and Martin now battling with them. Nick managed to pass Jerome and started pulling away. Gary now had a clear lead ahead of Clive with Martin third and Andrew pulling away from the rest.
Now that the leading sailors were rounding buoys lower down the course it was becoming much more congested and positioning on the C buoy was particularly busy. Gary now had a buoys length on the rest and finished the race whilst Clive was sailing up to the final P buoy. At the rear, Jerome had distanced Martin and James who were still battling at the back. Clive finished second with Martin third, Andrew fourth, Nick fifth, Jerome sixth and Martin managed to pip James to the line. On Handicap, the positions were Gary, Martin E, Clive, Andrew, Martin C, Nick, Jerome and James.
The sailors returned to the clubhouse for tea and cake to recount their race stories and the Commodore, James Long presented Gary with a bottle of Champagne for winning.
The Spring Series starts next Sunday (April 10th) with the first race commencing at 11am.