Hampton SC hosted the next round of the Merlin Rocket vintage and local circuit meetings. On Saturday the De May vintage series for boats built before 1985 continued, followed by the Thames series open to all Merlins on the Sunday. We were blessed with sunny warm weather all weekend for what may well turn out to be the last shorts & T-shirt event of the year!
We tested our new launching arrangements for visiting boats with a pontoon bridging from the Bell Hill car park to our slipway on the north bank. This worked so much better than trying to get boats across to the club down the narrow Benn’s Alley. Once assembled on the island and after bacon baps and coffee had been consumed, Saturday’s racing got under way in a very light and fickle more or less Westerly. The 14 boat fleet was led by Rob and Hattie Cage in their lovely renovated and updated Hullabaloo, 1692, followed by John and Livvy Bell in Grand Teton, 1201. Simon Girven and Richard Parslow followed in Splatter, 1631. The wind was generally too light to get the spinnaker to fill.
The second race was held after a very brief turn round, with the wind picking up a bit and a little more consistent in direction. Another straightforward course round an upriver and downriver mark gave a shifty beat followed by a tricky run. Rob and Hattie again showed us the way round, this time to a longer J downriver mark, which set the pattern for the weekend. Behind there was quite a bit of place changing in the shifty conditions but this time Simon and Richard took the 2nd place with John and Livvy in 3rd.
After a sausage and ciabatta lunch the third race got going in the best conditions of the day, a more consistent SW wind giving ideal beat and run racing in unbroken sunshine. Rob and Hattie again took 1st, from Simon and Richard in 2nd and John and Livvy in 3rd. Now the racing was done, the fleet settled down to consume some delicious Hampton baked cakes before starting on the beer. Prizes were then awarded for the De May: Rob and Hattie first, Simon and Richard 2nd and Ollie and Emily 3rd. Extra chocolate prizes were given to the 2 junior crews, Emily H and Mariella Burton and hoodies and various other goodies were awarded courtesy of Craftinsure, the sponsors of the De May.
That evening we had a curry delivered by a local restaurant (thank you very much Nicky Page for organising it) and I believe the evening finished after the supply of Kraken rum for the Dark and Stormies had run out and those left standing were forced to consume Armanac.
Report thanks to Andrew Mills
