On the weekend of the 19/20 September we had the inaugural City Livery Sailing Challenge, held at Sea View Yacht Club in the Sea View Mermaids. Organised by George Bastin of the Ironmongers, CLYC supported the event and we were glad to see several of our members taking part. There were 12 Liveries taking part in the event, with all congregating at Sea View Yacht Club on the Friday evening for an informal meet and wonderful dinner. In addition to the competitors, we had several spectators for the teams, CLYC’s Club Admiral Anthony Morrow, and a few guests from Sea View Yacht Club. Festivities on the Friday evening drew to an earlier close to ensure all teams would be in peak form Saturday morning for what was forecasted to be a windy day!
The weather was fairly soft when all arrived at SVYC Saturday morning, for pastries, bacon rolls, and caffeine. SVYC held a swift briefing with a view to getting racing underw
ay as quickly as possible before the stronger winds were due to blow through. It was decided that the day would be made up of four, 12 boat fleet races, with the teams switching boats between the morning and afternoon races to ensure parity across the fleet.
With the wonderful safety boat team at SVYC ferrying the Livery teams out to their boats very quickly, the first task for the spectators was to work out which Livery was in which colour boat – we were glad of the race team’s cheat sheet! The SVYC Mermaids are fantastic boats, all with a different colour hulls and a matching ‘big’ spinnakers which were quite the sight during the racing. As the crews milled around the start line, getting used to the boats, locating the marks, and taking transits, we were greeted by 2 glorious Spitfires flying overhead to welcome in the racing, almost as though it was organised!
The wind stayed fairly light, with a few gusty patches rolling through, for the morning’s races. The order of the pack was interchangeable and made for very exciting viewing – trying to guess which tactics to employ and where to find the best shifts kept us all guessing who would be finishing in each place. Fortunately for the crews aboard the boats, there was a very welcome respite over lunch where they could come ashore to dry out (a mixture of rain and sea spray!), fill themselves up at SVYC’s tasty buffet, and enjoy a drink, before getting back out on the water for the afternoon’s action. With a bit of excitement to start with, where a halyard had shot to the top of a mast on one boat (we established there had been no sabotage!), it was decided the spare SVYC Mermaid would need to be employed for the afternoon. With a few boats OCS at the start, the wind shifts and gusts caused the fleet to condense again shortly thereafter and we were treated to not 1, not 2, but 3 photo finishes to the third race! If the Mermaids were not all distinctive colours, this would have made the race team’s job much harder!
Going into the final race, we had two teams on equal points and there was everything to play for still. The Women’s Rugby World Cup final had also just kicked off, and so the spectators were torn between the game and the high octane racing, as the wind had really blown up for the last course of the day. Watching some of the boats being knocked down by the gusts was nail biting from the shore, and really tested the crews’ perseverance to keep the boat moving around the course. Fortunately there were no casualties – boats or crew members – just many soggy sailors ready to get back to shore to enjoy a hard earned drink.
A special reception was held upstairs at SVYC to award the trophies for the racing, and with the sun having broken back through cloud for a wonderful sunset, all in convivial spirits, and the prospect of a beautiful dinner awaiting the attendees, there was a superb atmosphere. The overall winners ended up being the Turners, who were presented with The Princess Royal Challenge Cup; the Shipwrights came in 2nd and also won the first race of the day; and a special prize, kindly donated by CLYC Past Commodore Peta Walmisley and which looks remarkably like a SVYC Mermaid sailing the waves, was awarded to the highest placed CLYC member being Jim Miller of the Scriveners who came in 5th overall.
It really was a fantastic weekend full of inter-Livery camaraderie as well as healthy competition, and it will be great to see the event grow from year to year – hopefully with lots more CLYC members also taking part to represent the club and their Livery!
