Congratulations! Class C Champions: Viscount Falmouth in Deliverance
Congratulations! Class B: Verity Perham in Rebecca
St. Mawes turned on the look and feel of the Mediterranean for the Falmouth Working Boat Championships held over the first week in July. A big high pressure was moving up from the South, the ambient wind was a gentle breeze from the northwest . Each day there were two scheduled races, one at 11 o’clock in the morning and one at three o’clock in the afternoon.
Day One Friday
Race 1
The day started with a draft of offshore wind , just enough for the fleet to drift out to the starting area under the Pendennis Castle. The Race Officer on his yacht Melkin hoisted a postponement flag and waited as the breeze gradually started to turn to the opposite direction, coming in from the south as a sea breeze.
The Committee boat relocated to a position near the Falmouth Harbour entrance and by eleven forty the race got underway in a moderate wind and bright sunshine. Close racing in both fleets in a good wind, Mildred suffered a snapped topsail pole on the next to last leg but they managed to finish the race.
Line honour in B class went to Sam Heard in Meloris and in C class, Phil Slater in Lottie.
On corrected times B class winner was; Ian Jenkins in Stella, and in C class; Viscount Falmouth’s Deliverance.
Race 2
The afternoon race got off to a flying start and close racing, on the final leg from the last rounding mark the fleets had to sail out of the harbour to turn around the Lugo buoy off St Mawes castle and sail to the finish line off the town Quay. On this leg the sea breeze switched off and left everyone fighting an incoming spring tide, when boats started going backwards the race was abandoned. To be rerun on Sunday after Race 5
That evening the social was held in St Mawes Sailing Club, The prize giving for bottles of Gin was held and Stella and Deliverance won the huge silver cups and enough gin and tonics to fill them to share with everyone.
The evening was then filled with splendid singing bolstered by members of the local ‘Rhos Kuer‘and ‘The Reason Why’ singers who combined with the sailors to raise the roof!
Day Two Saturday
Race 3
The day dawned with an overcast sky which meant the sea breeze was held off in the morning giving glorious flat water sailing , the starts got off on time and extremely close racing ensued.
Missing from the C Class fleet was Dolly, Adam Davies the owner was tweaking his rig the previous evening and climbed out on the bowsprit with no forestay, the sprit cracked off dunking Adam in the water. Not to be deterred Adam effected a repair at his boatyard overnight to be back for Sunday.
At the finish line off St.Mawes Quay line honours went to in B class Grace and in c class Lottie. On corrected times the winners were in B class; Callum Ferris in Helen Mary and in C class; Adam Bird in Leila.
Race 4
By the afternoon the cloud cover had burnt off and a sea breeze was trying to build but it held off and racing got underway on time at three o’clock Once again racing was very competitive with different boats taking the lead, at the finish it was Meloris first across the line in B class and Leila in C class.
On corrected times the winners were in B class; Callum Ferris in Helen Mary and Adam Bird in Leila.
That evening the prize giving and was held in St Mawes Social Club and the prizes were those presented by the Heard Family of Tregatreath Boatyard which built and maintains of the majority of the boats racing, In the spirit of the class Sam Heard bought along his family,his daughter Nancy presented the trophies. The trophies Sam had made himself the winners, getting a block of wood with a shipwright’s adze buried in it .The first wooden boat, Ian Jenkins in Stella, getting a wood turning block.
Day Three Sunday
Race 5
Another Glorious sunshine day on the Carrick Roads dawned and the northerly offshore breeze held long enough for the race committee to get one race sailed.
The race was short, giving a test of agile boat handling and the finish , this time out in the Carrick Roads rather than sailing back into St Mawes and going ashore. This enabled another race to be held back to back, straight after to replace Race 2 which was abandoned on Friday.
Line honours for race 5 went to Verity in Rebecca in B fleet and Viscount Falmouth’s Deliverance in C fleet.
John Maunder, his wife Liz with Derek and Jeanette on the committee boat hoped for a quick turn around. However the wind had other ideas, the breeze dropped right away to nothing, looking up the harbour to Restronguet the northerly was holding, but out to sea to the south there were spinnakers on cruising yachts filling and sailing in on a sea breeze.
Rerun of Race 2
The Race committee held their nerve and waited until the sea breeze filled in, then set up the final course which gave a cracking race to end the regatta and finish off the St Mawes Quay.
B Class were too keen and had to have a general recall on their start, C class then started on time followed by B five minutes later. This resulted in both fleets sailing into the finish together making a wonderful site with the sun glinting on the water and all the coloured topsails vivid in the sunshine.
In the rerun of Race 2 the line honours were Patrick Selman’s Moon in B class and Gary Denning skippering Deliverance in C class.
On corrected times the winners were, Verity in Rebecca first in B class and Viscount Falmouth’s Deliverance in C class.
The crews then all came ashore and assembled in the Social Club for the final overall prize giving and a tot of rum.
The results were very close, especially in the B class. Verity Perham in her first season as owner of Rebecca piping Helen Mary with Callum Ferris proudly carrying on Kevin Andrew’s legacy by just one point
Results
