The first cup race of 2026 held on the May Bank Holiday Saturday as part of Flushing Sailing Clubs racing programme. The Grace Cups were originally presented by the superyacht crew from Pendennis Shipyard who were builders of the working boat Grace 54. They borrowed Martin Heard’s 28ft. mould and built the boat to be able to join in the fantastic racing the fleet enjoys. The Cups were made of Pewter and are a little battered over time but embrace the spirit of the Class.
The Gibbard Cups were presented by Nigel Gibbard who was the owner of the Greenbank Hotel back in the seventies. In those days it the favourite pub for the crews and fishermen to frequent was the bar under the Hotel ( now The Working Boat Bar). The bar was run by John and Sylvia, and much hilarity was enjoyed with singing accompanied by guitars, violins, and accordions and even a rocking horse to ride on! Unfortunately the cups have not been returned by the last winners so could not be presented.
The race started in the inner harbour in a light north-westerly breeze and bright sunshine. Two rounds of a 5.7-mile course. The course looked optimistically long to start with, but the breeze increased to a lovely steady pressure making the two rounds practical.
In B Class ‘Moon’ took the lead on the first round and was first back to the turning gate, but being the first race of the season didn’t have the correct course cards on board. They didn’t realise they had a second round; this was spotted by race officer John Maunder who gratuitously called them on the radio and put them on the right track. ‘Moon’ even after a short double back at the gate with Steve Hills on the helm held the lead back to the finish line with Amy Creedon in ‘Lola’ chasing all the way. Only one second separated the two on corrected time.
Lovely to see ‘Rebecca’ out with her restored owner, Verity Slater, on the helm and her ex-owner Chris DeGlanville being the main man on ‘Evelyn’ with Rob Wing from St.Mawes. ‘Winnie’ on her first outing of the season pulled out her headsails from the locker to discover the bag labelled ‘staysail’ contained the storm jib, but full marks to the crew they sailed the race with no staysail and managed a credible eleven minutes, in well over a two hour race, behind the next B Class boat.
As there were only three C Class boats out, they opted to start with B Class on the same course. First time out was ‘Dolly’ with her new owner Adam Davies and his two young boys as crew, luckily for them whilst rigging up on the mooring who should come along but Danny (Rocket) Miller who jumped aboard to assist. Close racing between the three boats ensued with Dolly leading Phil and Jilly in ‘Lottie’ and Peter in ‘Iris Elizabeth’, with only two minutes between each boat.
A packed Flushing Sailing Club assembled in the afternoon sun for the prize giving. However, not before an oversight by Trevor on the ‘Moon’ as he found he had not actually entered the boat, after some negotiations and smooth Irish talking the problem was resolved and prize giving could resume. The prize giving was conducted by Chairman John Peters and cups presented by David Mitchell Commodore of Flushing Sailing Club.
It was the 5th. Anniversary of the Flushing Sailing Club re-build of the Clubhouse and a full evening celebration with food and music was held after the prize giving. Congratulations to the Club and sincere thanks for all their help and backup running the Working Boats racing,
RESULTS
B Class:
- Moon 2. Lola 3. Evelyn 4. Florence 5. Rebecca 6. Winnie
C Class:
- Dolly 2. Lottie 3. Iris Elizabeth