A small fleet of five boats participated in the Twickenham Open on
Sunday October 2nd in very hot conditions. Two visiting boats
joined three home boats for a very pleasant day of racing on the Thames.
With a light southerly wind forecast conditions would have been
difficult on the usual reach between Twickenham and Richmond, so the
decision was taken to race on the reach upstream of Eel Pie island where
the southerly breeze would blow straight up the reach.
Rather than the usual Twickenham Open scenery of waterside trees the
visitors had the opportunity to admire the riverside gardens of the
houses along the Middlesex bank.
As usual the core of the TYC fleet consisted of the Deverson family,
with Pip sailing her China Doll and her son Chris sailing his Tigress
with his sister Georgina.
As forecast the breeze was light initially but built nicely throughout
the day. The hot sunny weather resulted in a lot of motor cruiser
traffic and throughout the races there were frequent calls of "mind the
line!" from the various anglers along the banks.
In the morning race Rock Lobster (Paradigm 2) and Paradigm Buster
(Paradigm 2) pulled clear of the three local boats with Rock Lobster
first to complete the two laps. Further back Catatonic and Cerabus were
locked together in a close Tigress versus Tigress contest. On the final
run Catatonic just managed to creep over the line a few seconds ahead of
Cerabus.
After lunch the breeze filled in nicely. There was considerable
competition for the favoured starboard end of the line at the start and
as a consequence Rock Lobster and Arctic Tern found themselves well over
the line. Paradigm Buster took advantage of the poor start by Rock
Lobster and was able to hold the lead throughout the four lap race. Rock
Lobster gradually overhauled Cerabus and Catatonic to take second place.
The second race produced another close battle between Cerabus and
Catatonic. Catatonic had to do penalty turns after tacking directly in
front of Cerabus, but on the final lap Cerabus nudged Catatonic on the
approach to the windward mark and while Cerabus was doing turns
Catatonic was able to pull away downwind to the finish.
In the final race conditions became quite lively. Rock Lobster held off
Paradigm Buster with Cerabus staying well ahead of Catatonic throughout.
Overall results
1 Rock Lobster 3533 Mike Day &
Anne Murch (Ranelagh)
2 Paradigm Buster 3524 Dave Peacock & Tricia Wood
(TVSC)
3 Catatonic
3143 Alistair Edwards & Amy Mcelroy (TYC)
4 Cerabus
3110 Chris Deverson & Georgina Deverson (TYC)
5 Arctic Tern 2700
Pip Deverson & Mark Marston (TYC)
Hamble Warming Pan
