There’s four months still to go before the Eve of St Crispin, but when Parkstone’s ILCA and Laser sailors invited their friends from Poole Yacht Club to join them for our traditional Big Monday, this happy band of brothers (and sisters!), 62 in number, (an all-time record, beating the previous one of 54), faced weather conditions that threatened to be more suited to the fields of Agincourt than Poole Harbour. Thunder and Lightning was never very far away and during race two it was dark enough for the ribs to switch on their nav. Lights! And then there was the wind, always making its presence felt but never to be relied upon, a bit like some politicians I could name.

Luckily for us, the race team led by Bob Jennings was well up to the job. The fact that Race 1 started in 7 knots from the south east and finished in 10 from the south west gives you an idea of how much they needed to be on their toes. None of this would have bothered Peter Gordon in the standard rig and Natalie Annels in the radial, both of whom stormed to victory in that race.

For those of you reading this who don’t know, Monday races are started by using one of the competitors as a gate-boat. On this occasion Colston Nichols offered his services, using a Rooster 8.1 rig to separate him from the rest. As Nigel Hawthorne might have commented, in ‘Yes Minister’, taking up such an office when faced with over 60 boats trying to cut past his stern, all within a gap of 75 seconds, was indeed a brave decision! Most people seemed to have managed the task of starting without mishap, although reports have reached the ears of this scribe that one, Iain Reid, wasn’t quite so successful. Although he manged to avoid hitting the gate boat he did come into contact with several fellow competitors and also made the schoolboy error of mucking up the Fleet Captain’s start; worse still, like Margaret Thatcher, Iain was not for turning, (at least not enough to exonerate himself!).

Considering the number of boats sailing in a relatively confined space, there were few other mishaps in race 1, apart from the abrupt wind change which caught out a lot of people who had sailed to the right on the second reach in order to avoid the worst of the tide. Changing fortunes resulted in these podium placings; Standard fleet: 1^st, Peter Gordon, 2^nd, Jon Gorringe and 3^rd, Hywel Roberts; Radial fleet: 1^st, Natalie Annels, 2^nd, Henry Keegan and 3^rd, Robbie Phipps.

Underneath a lowering sky but rising wind, a nifty course change was desired by competitors and achieved by an experienced race team. Race 2 started uneventfully, and with a slightly more consistent wind strength and direction some of the more familiar fleet leaders began to show their quality. Mark roundings for the leaders were, as usual, fairly calm affairs, but for the majority it was a perilous business. Those who desire greater evidence of such a claim will have their wish granted if they were to visit Simon Foster’s Face Book posting where they will be able to enjoy magnificent footage of the race if not of our ‘trouser-less’ cameraman! Although darkness was now approaching, there was still sufficient light for almost everyone to enjoy the sight of Harry Cowell capsizing in knee deep water. Mind you, the spectacle did not last long; the Red Bull F1 team would have been impressed by Harry’s righting speed. The enjoyment of the spectators was swiftly followed by much raising of centre boards! Those of you who have had the pleasure of recording the finish of single-handed dinghies most of which have 6-digit numbers will appreciate the fine efforts of the recorders of this night. It’s my far simpler task to note the podium finishers in each fleet. They were; Radials: 1^st, Eve Kennedy 2^nd, Ann Keates and 3^rd, Rob Penson; Standards: 1^st, Giles Kuzyk 2^nd, Chris Whalley and 3^rd, Neil Davies.

Over sixty boats on the water for a Monday night’s sail is difficult to beat for impact, but there were some other statistics of note. Some might consider it old-fashioned of me to mention it but the fact that we had 17 lady single-handed sailors racing is worthy of note in my book. Natalie Annels (1^st and 4^th) and Jon Gorringe (2^nd and 4^th) had the lowest combined scores in their respective fleets. Colston Nichols had an even lower combined score (1^st&1^st), but he was, as he always has been in my opinion, in a class of his own! Arguably more impressive, given the very contrasting nature of the 1^st and 2^nd races, we had two sailors who managed to finish in exactly the same place in their fleets, David Pratt in the Radial fleet (12^th) and Richard Strang in the Standard fleet (28^th).

A record-breaking night like this doesn’t happen by chance. Thanks to the efforts of our Fleet Captain, Chris Whalley, the regular Monday night sailors were joined by sailors from our youth section, helms from our Thursday ladies’ group and six sailors from Poole Yacht Club all of whom, incidentally accredited themselves well with finishes ranging from 7^th to 27^th. Doubly impressive when you consider that Gate boat starting was a new venture for them.

As a reward for coping with the trickiness of returning to shore in very shallow water amongst capsizing and gybing boats, and at least one very experienced lady sailor (who is far too close to me to name), losing her tiller in one of the above-mentioned manoeuvres, returning sailors were rewarded with a free drink. The speediness of return was largely helped by the policing efforts of our Commodore who decided to direct traffic after his own capsize! Thirty lucky souls of those returning to the club were also booked in for a sailor’s supper organised by our energetic and highly efficient social secretary, Fiona Wall.

So, definitely a night to remember. Those of us who were forced by circumstance to miss this event may appreciate the words Henry V might have uttered on the eve of St Crispin:
“Laser sailors of the UK now abed shall think themselves accursed that they were not there and hold their sailing credibility cheap while any speak that sailed with us on Parkstone’s Big Monday!”


John Keates
p.s. full results can be found on PYC’s web-site here.