Draycote Water Silver Salver Pursuit Race
28th March 1998.
For the first time since
1995 the Draycote Water Silver Salver pursuit race was held and with Julian having
expressed a wish to go to this event, when Hugh Myers and Gordon were unable to attend due
to Hugh's knee requiring medical attention we were brought in as last minute substitutes.
A rapid plan for the weekend was put together, which included a visit to my old friend and
mentor Nikki in Telford (a convenient stopping off point for all places east and south).
Leaving home straight from
work in full VW long distance sailing mode we arrived in Telford at approx 9.00 pm to find
Nikki's new man (recently stolen from his wife!) was an excellent cook and that Nikki had
taken to smoking cheroots at the age of 55, that even made my eyebrows raise slightly. A
thoroughly good evening was had which involved drinking far too much wine, one of those
occasions where your glass mysteriously refills itself and the only concept of what has
been drunk is the number of empty wine bottles littering the table at the end of the
evening or should I say half way through the morning.
A short but very hung over
hop to Draycote Water just south of Rugby saw us arrive at the club in our class finishing
place of 3rd out of 4, John Best and Peter Doran had established an FD corral which we and
lastly Andy Moss and David joined. The weather on arrival can only be described as
miserable, a fairly heavy downpour of rain and no wind to speak of, the rain was
unpleasant but soon abated but the lack of wind did not bother us unduly, ha ha ha.
The start of a full
pursuit race is a fairly relaxed affair for the fast boats with ample time to change after
the mirrors were sent on their way over a glassy lake, however on emerging from the club
house it was clear that the wind had come up somewhat, leaving us lightweights considering
clew 2 before the start, a move which we had to make later in the race. Before the FD
start there was a spitfire buzzing the lake, we thought this must have been laid on
specially for John Best, or possibly by JB to put off the opposition.
The first half of our race
which was to be just over 2 hours long was an FD class affair, initially John, Peter and
ourselves swapped places but as the wind came up just John and Peter battled it out at the
front, us in the middle and Andy at the back until we caught up with the rest of the
nearly 200 boats taking part, and the few boats faster than us, Laser 5000 and 49er caught
us up almost simultaneously. The race then become rather like the M25 on a Monday morning
with the faster boats picking their way through the slower, the 49er passed us with the
same seeming ease that we passed the Mirrors. As the fleet condensed the few places where
the course crossed itself became very tricky but in general everyone was pretty well
behaved and we only had to call one boat.
The wind was a decidedly
variable commodity both in direction and strength, particularly in the corner of the lake
by the club where the gusts were more pronounced. The race was well organised with the
finish denoted by a red parachute flare and boats at every mark of the course noting down
the positions as the fleet passed and providing a sound signal for each finisher. It was a
good day out for the FD class with the maximum attendance allowed of 4 boats putting in a
good showing for the class, in the most prestigious dinghy event held in the English
Midlands.
FD positions.
John Best and James Cole
64
Peter Doran and Richard
Phillips 65
Julian Bridges and Cathy
Bridges 88
Andy Moss and David (must
have either not signed off or not sailed to the end of the leg when the race finished)
Cathy Bridges
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