Maylandsea Bay ying’s and yang’s a tremble

A late tide and a dying breeze set the ying’s and yang’s a tremble as the wading birds lifted off the mud banks keeping the mystery and enchantment of a unique Essex sailing venue.

The gathering fleet quickly upped the pace and busied themselves checking their sail setting and rig tensions, rolling boats on their edges to sounds of gentle unfolding sail cloth and mounting pressure in the galley.

For the race box this was a stressed day with the sun already low in the sky and the wind due to drop as the day ended. The fleet was lucky enough to have Geoffrey Walkey, a Race Officer not to be messed with. With the wind in the east at 14 knots a course was posted this week only with seventeen marks to be rounded not including spit which must be rounded on the correct side going out and coming in, the fleet were blessed that due to the lateness of day there was only one lap.

The start was a well-mannered affair with Malcolm and Tony ‘Fireball’ popping out in front, closely followed by Dave and Keith ‘Fireball’, Jacko and Lorna ‘Merlin’. The battle for lead Fireball was a twitchy affair with the wind shifts being slight but often. With the leaders well up Lawling creek disaster struck for Dave and Keith as on a lifting port tack, heading south, gaining a hold on the lead they rounded mark 6 to be confronted by the sight of Jacko and Lorna, Malcolm and Tony correctly rounding mark 5 with the rest of the fleet following on.

 Dave knew that is was not going to be a good day at the office. It appears that some error had occurred as Mark and Barry, trailing in a 505, just by luck had passed mark 5 to the right side. Jacko and Lorna now with a good lead worked their way around the macramé handbag of a course, round Mundon spit race mark and heading back up the creek for home, the course having been shortened, to win by a small margin and soft PY number from Martin Tarlin ‘Laser’ who had been sailing above his PY finishing in front of many faster boats, with Malcolm and Tony finishing 3rd.

Race 3 was quickly under way and with all the boats sailing the same course was a close friendly affair. But as the sunset and the wind started to drop to a drift the faster boats pulled away with Mark and Barry taking line honours finishing 3rd overall from Jacko and Lorna 1st, Malcolm and Tony 2nd.

Notables: Steve and Gordon are leading the Lark race by 3 points from Paul and Alex. There are 4 Larks entered in the series. Malcolm and Tony lead the Fireball race from Kevin and Phil (Sandhopper escapees) by 5 points in a fleet of 4 boats entered.
Ron and Laura ‘Merlin have been the first boat to be DSQ for failing to observe SI 8.1 Spit Channel Buoy.
The race marks continued to be battered by the competitors but no names will be mentioned, Mr. Williams.

With the fleet sailing so close together and so much polite verbal being heard! How long till the first outing of the toys and a protest hearing we wonder.

Thanks to Richard Lytheer for the splendid photographs.

And a special thank you to Geoffrey and the support boat team who gave the fleet one of the best day racing on a day that could have easily gone very sad.

Next race Sun.15th 9:45 start

Full results:

Overall:

1st     Alan Jackson and Lorna Laval        Merlin     2 points

2nd    Malcolm Cross and Tony Everitt    Fireball    6 points

3rd     Mark Batt and Barry Sadler           505         9 points