Day 6
STUDIES IN CONCENTRATION
A lot happened on the final day of Poole Week 2024. The wind was in one of its light and fickle moods, the tide was ebbing for the first starts, and the harbour was busy with traffic that had been mercifully light earlier in the week. The fact that it was a warm and relatively calm Friday afternoon during the Bournemouth Air Festival might have accounted for the proliferation of motorboats and assorted watercraft that, all too often, showed scant regard to the rules of the road and even less consideration towards the racing sailor. A notable exception in that respect was the Border Force cutter – always a reassuring sight – which patiently waited for several minutes while a densely-packed fleet rounded the gybe mark.
Contributing to the congestion and general merriment in the eastern end of the harbour was the complete lack of wind in the top triangle, where the ILCAs and Flying Fifteens should have been racing. Bryan Drake and his team on Parkstone Yacht Club’s committee boat had no choice other than to move the start line eastwards, to the north of Brownsea Island. Then the course, for what turned out to be the only race of the day, took the fleets on more-or-less a windward/leeward, with the weather mark near Sandbanks. Some different interpretations of the course led to a little confusion within the Flying Fifteens and protests that, in turn, delayed the prize-giving, but all was resolved in the end.
Results-wise, Bob Alexander and Huw Willetts maintained their lead to win the week from Richard Whitworth and Trefor Jones in 2nd. Geof Gibbons, crewed by Dave Moy and clearly finding his feet in the Fifteens after moving across from the Wayfarers, finished 3rd in this intensely competitive fleet.
Starting in deeper water, the Parkstone Platform fleets had a stronger ebb underneath them for the first starts, resulting in a few boats being OCS and having to fight their way back to the right side of the line.
Thankfully the combination of patchy wind, chopped up water and assorted other challenges didn’t, in most cases, have a significant bearing on the overall results. Nigel and Gareth Yeoman won race 5 in the Dolphins to snatch victory from Richard Whing and Gail Davies, who had held the overnight lead and who ultimately finished equal on points with the winners. Many of the XODs opted not to sail the last race, in which traditionally the crew takes the helm, but Penny Fulford did a horizon job in the penultimate race to secure her 3rd place overall. The stand-out performance of the week was also in the XOD fleet, from John Tremlett and his crew of Fraser Graham and Tim Copsey, who counted nothing but 1sts and 2nds. In fact their only finish outside the top two was a 6th in the first race on Tuesday. This extraordinary set of results earned them the boat-of-the-week trophy in the form of the impressive Britannia Cup for the second successive year. The calculations for the Britannia Cup take into account the results in every race – no discards allowed – and other factors including the size of the fleet. It’s not an easy one to win.
Another well-earned victory went to the chairman of the Poole Week committee, Peter Loretto, in the RS200s, which shared a start and a course with the 400s. Peter and his crew, Lily Tointon, often got in among the 400s and, in the first race on Friday, finished 2nd on the water out of the entire combined fleet. Sean and Helen Murray, meanwhile, made sure of their result in the 400s with two more wins to count a clean row of bullets and finish 11 points clear at the top of the table.
Across the fleets were many worthy winners and, inevitably, one or two who might well have won had a shift or two – or, on Friday, possibly a powerboat or two – gone the other way. Poole Harbour has its peculiarities and it takes time to learn your way around. Local sailors might have a better idea where the marks are (on round-the-harbour courses, finding them can be an exercise in itself), but they don’t always get to them any faster than the visitors. Witness the success of the Lymington and Itchenor XODs, which filled seven of the top eight places. Rob Jackson, all the way from the Cayman Islands, so nearly won the ILCA 6s. He had held the overnight lead and, had the last day’s racing been on ‘normal’ courses in the top triangle rather than battling with traffic in the unfamiliar eastern end of the harbour, things might have been different.
Whatever the results, the event proved that Poole Week is as vibrant as ever. Not everyone comes to win. Some boats had their own reasons to celebrate, such as Mark and Tessa Woodhouse’s XOD No. 12, Dawn, marking her centenary year. Poole Week has always offered much more than just racing, generating its own unique atmosphere that’s hard to define and that keeps people coming back year after year.
As everyone was reminded at the prize giving, the event wouldn’t happen without an army of people including the organisers, the volunteers and the sponsors and supporters, especially the title sponsor, Bournemouth Digital.
So that’s it for another year. Poole Harbour might become a little quieter for a while now, but the buzz from this very special week of sailing and socialising will help to keep everyone going during the darker months and looking forward to doing it all over again in 2025.
