Last day of May 2026 and the last day of record breaking week of heatwave temperatures. Glorious sunshine and a forecast of 12 knots westerly wind, however by the scheduled start time the wind had turned into a 3-4 knot shifty southerly sea breeze. This posed a dilemma for standing in race officers John Peters and Tim Pearce, what course to set that would give a good upwind leg even if the wind swung back to the west, which it would do at some point. None of the Flushing Club set courses would suit, bearing in mind several marks were in use by the Sunbeam Class regatta and also a Bristol Pilot boat event at St. Mawes. A one off course of a large triangle was set giving the option to shorten if necessary.
Six B-Class and three C-Class boats lined up at the startline just as the seabreeze died to a very light pressure which made the beating starts against the tide a bit of a struggle. Most boats opted for the pin end with ‘Moon’ taking the committee boat end where there was more wind. But ‘Moon’ had to tack out of the ‘no go’ mooring area on port and tack and take the transoms of the fleet on starboard.’Winnie’ had opted for a spot on the line clear of the bunch up at the pin, got clear air and managed to sail high enough to clear above the moorings to sail off in front towards the first mark, St.Just. In C-Class ‘Iris Elizabeth’ copied ‘Winnie’ but got hit by a header and ‘Deliverance’ sailed through above them towards their first mark, North Bank.
Half way across the harbour the wind inverted back to a northerly making tactics difficult. After about an hour the race committee could see the westerly wind building on the water up the Penryn River. It was decided to shorten courses to West Narrows, through the gate to the finish line at the Club which would give them a good beat home.
‘Florence’ who probably couldn’t see the new wind coming radioed in and retired and ‘Deliverance’ failed to hear the change of course and continued on to Castle Buoy.. The rest of the fleet sailed into the westerly breeze which was about 12-15 knots and had a lovely sail back to the finish. ‘Winnie’ helmed by Arty Williams, held her lead until ‘Moon’ helmed by Donal O’Halloran, overtook them sailing up the confines of the harbour, ‘Lola’ helmed by Amy Creedon chasing hard. On the line it was ‘Moon’, ‘Winnie’ then ‘Lola’, Then in C-Class it was ’Iris Elizabeth’ sailed by Peter Caldwell, then ‘Leila’ Adam Bird, followed by ‘Deliverance’ on her first sail after a refit, unfortunately the strong breeze broke her new Topsail jackyard and they had to drop the topsail to be able to finish.
After racing the host venue was The Royal Standard in Flushing where Jinny and Roger hosted the approximately fifty sailors to a generous barrel of beer and copious amounts of very tasty pizzas.The Standard has always supported the Working Boats and everyone was encouraged to frequent the pub whenever they can. A short speech about Percy Dalton who was responsible for designing the majority of the recent times working boats and Feety Spear who was the local Flushing Milkman who crewed with Kenny Corke on ‘Evelyn’ and Toby West on ‘Victory’. Both legends and totally involved in the ethos of the Falmouth Working Boats.
The results on corrected handicap times:
B -Class
1st. Winnie – Feety Spear Trophy,
2nd. Lola – First Percy Dalton Design.
3rd. Moon,
4th. Evelyn,
5th. Stella.
C-Class
1st Iris Elizabeth – First Percy Dalton Design
2nd. Leila – Feety Spear Trophy
3rd. Deliverance.