Great Tea Race at Tamesis Club
by John Dunkley 19 May 2010 00:29 PDT
16 May 2010
The Merlins going downstream during the Great Tea Race at Tamesis © John Dunkley
Rob Wilder made the most of a 13 minute handicap advantage to outsail a 26 boat fleet in The Great Tea Race to win the Cutty Sark Bolt at Tamesis on Sunday 16 May. Sailing Wild Wood (Solo 5041), he showed a clean pair of heels to the front runners of both the 16 Merlin Rockets and the seven Lasers, over which he had a seven minute advantage.
He won not only the Cutty Sark Bolt, a real Cutty Sark bolt made of Muntz metal mounted on a base of wood from the famous tea clipper, but also two packs of the type of tea she carried from China to Britain. Jon and Augusta Redding were second in Scruffy (Merlin Rocket 3520).
Race Officer John Harris set a fairly long course that made the best of the light to moderate westerly wind but the positions of the marks, with Lensbury well down Trowlock Island, an east-west dogleg in the shadow of the clubhouse, and Canbury upstream of Albany, gave many competitors a challenging time trying to round them.
The trophy was presented by Peter Mason, former Commodore of Tamesis, who was Chief Engineer for the Cutty Sark Conservation Project until last November.
Overall Results:
1st Wild Wood (Solo 5041) Rob Wilder
2nd Scruffy (MR3520) John & Augusta Redding
3rd Luka (MR3560) Mike Stephens & Fiona Cotterill
4th (MR1871) Andrew Harris & Sally Redhead
5th Crescendo (MR 607) Berry Ritchie & Chris Ledger