Five visiting sailors and seven from Cookham Reach competed for the 2022 Cookham Reach Sailing Club Lightning 368 Open on Saturday July 23rd which was won by John Claridge of Royal Lymington Yacht Club.
The sailors arrived at the club in sunny weather with winds of around 5 to 10 knots from the southeast bearing round to the south. The race officers Clive Church and Tricia Evison decided to set a course starting from upstream of the club house and set the start/finish line halfway between the Cookham Bend and Andrew’s Beach. The course consisted of a B buoy taken to port and set about 15m out from the Berkshire bank and about 50m upstream of the bend, a C buoy at the Cookham Bend and set about 10m from the Berkshire bank. The sailors then tacked across to the D buoy set over on the Buckinghamshire bank about 20 upstream of the C buoy. The sailors then sailed downwind to the A buoy which was positioned midstream just below Andrew’s Beach.
Eleven sailors lined up for the start with Peter Withrington (LN 442) late to the start line after needing to rig his new Lightning for its first sail. Most of the sailors started around mid-stream as there were very light winds on the Berkshire bank and they all sailed on a starboard tack over to the Bucks bank with some jostling to get ahead and find some clear space on the river. By the time they arrived at the first buoy the bunch were still closely matched and they had to file past the top C buoy due to the narrow space between the buoy and the bend which was surrounded by lilies. The early leading bunch formed with John Claridge (LN 427), Simon Hopkins (LN 428), Dave Phillips (LN 259), Andrew Yuille (LN 446), Caroline Hollier (LN 438) and Martin Evans (LN 150) contesting the lead with a gap forming to the rest of the chasing sailors. The leading bunch rounded the A buoy and tacked back and forth back down the river to the line, Dave Phillips crossing the line in the lead ahead of Andrew Yuille, John Claridge, Caroline Hollier, Simon Hopkins and Martin Evans. The gap had opened up further to the rest with Duncan Cheshire (LN 434) leading Duncan Watts (LN 431), Clive Evison (LN 412), James Long (LN 304), Peter Withrington and Nigel Webb (LN 372). On the second lap, John Claridge took over the lead and pulled clear with Caroline Hollier and Simon Hopkins also passing but only just ahead of Dave now fourth and Andrew Yuille fifth. Caroline managed to close the gap to John on the penultimate lap, with both pulling a big lead over Andrew and Dave who were involved in a very close battle around the course just ahead of Simon. These three had a big gap over Martin Evans in sixth and Duncan Cheshire seventh. The winds dropped on the final lap causing issues for many of the sailors, John led the final lap pulling away again from Caroline second, Dave Phillips third, Martin Evans was fourth and Duncan Cheshire fifth.
The sailors lined up at the line for the start of the second race in very light winds. The pack mimicked the start of the first race on the starboard tack across to the Bucks bank and jostled back and forth up to the B buoy. John Claridge found the best line and took the lead with the rest of the sailors fighting over river space around the B and C buoys which got very busy. By the time they completed the first lead, John had pulled out a gap of a minute over the rest, Simon Hopkins was second just ahead of Martin Evans who had a small lead over Duncan Cheshire and Peter Withrington who had about forty five seconds lead over Andrew Yuille, Caroline Hollier, David Phillips and Duncan Watts. John opened up a large lead on the second lap and moved on to the final lap of the race, he was exploiting the very light winds very well to pull away from Simon in second who was involved in a close battle with Peter Withrington. Then there was another small gap to Martin Evans and Duncan Cheshire. John’s lap reduced on the final lap, but he still held a two minute lead as he came across the line to take a clean sweep of the morning races. Behind the light winds had jumbled up the race positions and Martin Evans had closed the gap to Simon and Peter during the final lap, passing them to take second. Caroline Hollier had also sailed an excellent final lap, closing a distance of a minute and a half and took third at the line. Simon was fourth and Peter fifth.
The wind picked up slightly during the lunch break as the Lightning 368 sailors exchanged stories of the challenging conditions in the morning conditions. Unfortunately, it had dropped again as they sailed down from the club jetty to the start line, eleven sailors took the start line with Nigel Webb opting to sit out the afternoon’s races. The usual gang got the best of starts and they tacked up to the first buoy and rounded it, but as they reached the top C buoy the wind dropped considerably and they struggled around the buoy. The pack behind closed in and it was extremely congested around the buoy with the entire fleet contesting the small space on the water and some sailors having to take very wide lines to avoid collision. The pack set off downwind to the A buoy and as they tacked backed up to the line to end the first lap, Andrew Yuille and Caroline Hollier had pulled out a small gap to the rest in the lead. Behind, Simon Hopkins and John Claridge were battling for third with another small gap over Clive Evison, Duncan Cheshire, Dave Phillips, Martin Evans and Peter Withrington. The light winds were again causing a shuffling of the pack with some sailors benefitting from light gusts and some getting stuck in dead spots, on the second lap, the two leaders lost out and Simon Hopkins, Duncan Cheshire, Dave Phillips and Clive Evison passing both the leaders of the first lap. Andrew held on to the back of this pack and then there was a small gap to john Claridge and Caroline. The sailors entered the final lap and Simon managed to hold on to his lead to take the win with Duncan Cheshire ten seconds behind in second. Dave Phillips was third, Peter Withrington fourth, Martin Evans fifth and John Claridge sixth.
The wind picked up slightly for the final race of the day and allowed the sailors to spread out more on the start line. The sailors tacked back and forth up the river to the B buoy with the usual congestion around the two top buoys before they sailed across to the D buoy on the Bucks bank. Andrew again managed to take the best lines and took the lead and had pulled out a small lead over the rest on the tacks back from A buoy to the line. This gap proved crucial as the others were battling over the best lines and holding each other up with Dave Phillips, John Claridge, Caroline Hollier and Simon Hopkins very closely together all the way around the course on the first lap. This pack had opened a gap of around half a minute to Duncan Cheshire, Clive Evison, Peter Withrington and Martin Evans. Andrew opened up the gap on the second lap with the others still battling behind, at the end of the lap Dave was still second but only just ahead of Caroline, John and Simon who crossed the line with the same time. Andrew was now able to concentrate on sailing his own race in the lead, Dave was still second, Simon third and Caroline fourth. John had dropped back from these chasers and was now involved in a close battle with Duncan and Martin. Andrew started his final lap with a two minute lead over the rest and sailed home to a convincing win. Simon and Caroline passed Dave on the final lap and Simon came home second, Caroline third and Dave fourth. These three had a good gap over John fifth, Duncan sixth and Martin seventh.
The sailors returned to the clubhouse for a well-earned drink and the prize-giving. John Claridge won with two wins and a fifth, Simon Hopkins was second with one win, a second and a fourth and Caroline Hollier was third with a second and two thirds. Highest place Cookham sailor and winner of the Derek Bayley Trophy was Dave Phillips with two thirds and a fourth.
