[UK Cat Info] Forts Race report

[Ron Bentham]

THE FORTS RACE

WHITSTABLE YACHT CLUB, SATURDAY 6th AUGUST 2005

 

Sailed in ideal force 3-4 conditions, the 2005 Forts Race produced the closest racing ever, providing a great sight for spectators at Harbour Day in Whitstable.

 

Race Officer, Don Findlay, set 40 top national catamaran crews off on a hub-and-spoke course, with legs North West along the coast of Sheppey Island, West up the Swale, North to Red Sands Forts and east to Herne Bay Pier. The fastest boats, Olympic Tornados, completed the course in three and three quarter hours – a distance of 77 kilometres, or 40 nautical miles, as the crow flies and rather more as the boats zig-zagged, tacking upwind and gybing downwind.

 

Leg One along the Sheppey coastline was a beat, where competitors had to choose between sailing close to the shore in flatter water with less wind or further out to sea with more wind but bigger waves. Hitting the right corner paid off handsomely for local Tornado sailor Richard Lamb, who was third to the windward mark, despite racing without the latest lightweight carbon mast. Gybing back downwind the bigger cats with spinnakers pulled out a big lead over two sailed Hurricanes and Darts.

 

Leg Two up the Swale estuary enabled competitors to reach fast across flat water up to the Faversham Creek and back, where the bigger boats were again able to fly their kites close-hauled. Less than a minute separated the first five Olympic Tornados, led by Brightlingsea’s Nick Barnes and Simon Northrop from Minnis Bay, closely followed by Whitstable’s Huw Reynolds.

 

At this stage the fleet was already becoming widely spread out, owing to the huge difference in performance potential between the various designs of catamaran. The last of the smaller Darts took three and a half hours to reach the end of the second leg. Fearing that the wind could drop at the end of the day, the race officer regretfully terminated the Short Course at this stage. The tope three places were all taken by local boats - John Brazier’s Spitfire from Minnis Bay, Peter Bramley’s Formula 18 from Tankerton and Tony Dod’s Dart from Whitstable.

 

Meanwhile for the fastest cats, Leg Three out to the Forts was a fast fetch on port, followed by a close reach back on starboard. As it was partially possible to fly kites on the way back, this 25 kilometre leg was completed by some in record breaking time of less than half an hour.

 

As the fleet therefore became further spread out, this became the final leg also for the Hurricane’s, the remaining two sail catamarans. Yorkshire’s Tim Roberts achieved the fastest time in this category, just a couple of minutes faster than class chairman, Phil Marks from Datchet.

 

The fourth and final leg, east round Herne Bay pier and back was a fast reaching duel to the finish, with the top five Olympic Tornados swopping places. In the end Nick Barnes beat Simon Northrop by just 25 seconds – a difference of only 0.2%, with Whitstable’s Huw Reynolds only a minute further behind.

 

Similarly the two leading Formula 18 cats were fighting their own duel. In the return leg Brightlingsea’s Will Sunnucks managed to pull out a small lead of a minute and a half over Stuart Gunmmer from Stokes Bay. 

 

While the F18 cats finished well behind the Olympic Tornados, corrected for handicaps there was a nail-biting wait till race management calculated the adjusted times. This gave Will Sunnucks, with his crew Mark Self the Forts Trophy – again.

 


RESULTS


Full Course: 1st Will Sunnucks & Mark Self (Brightlingsea), 2nd Stuart Gummer & Gillian Power (Stokes Bay), 3rd Nick Barnes & Stuart Smith (Brightlingsea)

Hurricane Class: 1st Tim Roberts & Chris Smith (Runswick Bay), 2nd Philip Marks & Dan Taylor (Datchet), 3rd Scott Anderson & Roger Baker (Sheppey)

Short Course: 1st John Brazier & Tim Gunn (Minnis Bay), 2nd Peter Bramley & Scott Bramley (Tankerton), 3rd Tony Dod & rachel Hodgekison (Whitstable)

 

For more information contact Nick Dewhirst Tel: 01227-282625 email dewhirst@btinternet.com <mailto:dewhirst@btinternet.com> 

Photographs available from Nick Champion Tel: 01227-266272