New: The Full Report on the Ian Brunt Trophy Race

The Ian Bunt Trophy traditionally heads from Chichester to Yarmouth for its overnight stay, however, this year sadly there was not enough space for us so we had to go to Lymington instead. Thankfully it is almost the same distance as the traditional race, just with a right turn at the end rather than a left, which was, hopefully, something we could manage.

In the lead up to the event it was clear that Zephyrus and Eurus had got the memo that CYC were doing a race to the West, and therefore hatched a cunning plan. For starters, Zephyrus would deliver us a westerly wind for our westward passage to Lymington. Whilst we were at the bar lamenting our day of beating to windward, Zephyrus would tag in his buddy Eurus to serve us up an Easterly wind to go with our bacon sandwiches the following morning for our journey east back to Chi. To say the weekend was primarily spent beating to windward would be a fair assessment. The one saving grace for all of this back and forth was that between them, they both decided not to commit their full arsenal, allowing us a gentle 10 knot breeze for most of the time.

The outbound leg to Yarmouth (…. sorry Lymington!) saw 14 boats amass on the start line. Well almost 14, we had a couple of boats who were a bit more relaxed about leaving the harbour, but they were at least close by at the time the action started.  There was the usual rabble, some boats that we had not seen for a while, plus a new boat to the fleet (more about them later). The start went off without a hitch, with the boats eagerly tacking across Hayling Bay on their way to Winner, the first mark on the course. On Elyse we managed to keep just ahead of the fleet Ferrari (Cool Runnings) at the first mark and keeping just to windward of her, we decided to take one for the team and slow her down a bit.  With her firmly in our lee, we decided not to tack straight away and even fell off a point or two forcing her to either slow up and go behind, or continue with us into the shallow water off of Langstone harbour (sorry Peter).

Having gone around the first mark the boats settled into a tacking match up the Solent on our way to the next mark, Gurnard, just off of Cowes. The Grey Funnel Line decided to add an additional obstacle, in the form of HMS Severn, right in the middle of our race course …. you would think they ruled the waves! The wind was now verging on a ‘fair bit’ so with a favourable tide the fleet was making good progress. The crew on Crayzee Feeling were looking concerned, having repaired their Genoa with governmental quantities of tape after our last outing proved a bit much, it was now displaying a fetching Frankenstein-esque stitch pattern down the leach and shedding strips of tape with every tack.

With the forecast predicting a drop in the wind strength in the afternoon, I had designed the course to try and keep the fleet in the maximum positive tidal flow. As such, the front two thirds of the fleet cleared Cowes before the wind knocked off for lunch, however sadly abandoning Selene IV, Windreaver, About Time, Star Dancer and Muddy Waters as they reached Cowes, leaving them floating on the tide. The view of the top one per cent sipping champagne on the lawn of the Royal Yacht Squadron was too much for the crew of About Time to bear. On came the engine and a course was set to the marina bar in Lymington post-haste! Unsurprisingly the rest of this crowd soon followed suit.

A bit further down the course to the West, the wind remained, all be it indecisive in direction and lacklustre in strength. The boats at the front end, Cool Runnings, Tern IV and Captain’s Lady were tacking back and forth around each other, being forced close to the Isle of Wight. Further back, Aquadisiac, Kerenza, Bugsy 2 and Serendipity had found some favourable wind closer to the mainland. We on Elyse, sitting pretty somewhere between these two groups, managed to pick up a rather favourable shift which allowed us to go directly for our destination…. it did not last long but at least allowed us to regain some ground over the front runners. With the wind now a gentle breeze and the sun shining, some crew took the opportunity for a cheeky little snooze in the sun, much to the upset of the poor soul left at the helm. We obviously take racing very seriously at CYC!

At the finish, the various wind shifts had allowed the fleet to catch up with each other, with the first five boats crossing within 10 minutes, closely followed by the rest, plus team motor. Our fleet newbies on Captain’s Lady took the podium position, followed but Elyse in second and Bugsy 2 in third.

Following the traditional ‘debrief’ and prize giving on the pontoon the crews retired to the Mayflower Inn for refuelling, which was completed in a haphazard but tasty fashion. Furnished with the latest weather forecast, which promised a very calm morning, the decision was made to have an extra half an hour in bed followed by a fleet motor to Cowes, hopefully arriving in time for the wind to fill in and us to be able to race home.

My crew on Elyse jumped ship in the early hours in order to catch a flight, so I signed on Alexander from Crayzee Feeling, for the princely sum of one Bacon and Egg Sandwich, for the return leg.

Leaving Lymington the fleet made a great sight motoring in semi formation to Cowes with CYC battle flags flying. The crew on Serendipity took the opportunity to try and catch breakfast on the way by trawling some mackerel feathers…. or at least that is what they claim. We all think it was another tactic to nobble Cool Runnings by trying to tangle her up in wayward fishing gear…. good tactic Chris, better luck next time.

Arriving at Cowes there was enough of a breeze to start the race and there was also a 2.5 knot tide flowing towards the East, which made the start very interesting, as the boats tried not to get pushed over the line before the gun. Sadly, Captain’s Lady found a patch of no wind at just the wrong moment, ending up parked on the start mark facing in the wrong direction. Thankfully, no harm was done, but the rest of the fleet had great fun going around a start buoy which was now 42ft long! Selene IV also suffered a Genoa wrap having otherwise gotten off to a great start, this slowed them down and gave the rest of the fleet something else to dodge off the start.

On Elyse I was discovering that my normal style of sailing was a little more relaxed than the modus  operandi aboard Crayzee Feeling. My new crew, helming like a champion, called for tack upon tack with each wind shift. I’ve never had to winch so much in my life! Still, we were doing remarkably well and the wind was shifting about so much the fleet was constantly changing positions. Again, the same boats pulled towards the front of the fleet on the mainland side of the Solent, however, in a cruel twist of fate a huge and permanent wind shift to the south favoured the boats on the Isle of Wight side, closing the fleet back up again and allowing Aquadisiac to revel in getting around the second mark just on the bow of Cool Runnings.

Much jesting followed until the crew on Cool Runnings dropped a cog and floored the throttle. The fleet had a split of tactics with Cool Runnings opting to go for the small boats passage, followed, not so closely, by Elyse and Crayzee Feeling. Meanwhile Tern IV, who was being carried along by some secret source of propulsion at the front of the fleet, and the rest had decided to go between the forts. As the two groups of boats converged near Chi buoy, the finish mark, much sail tweaking could be seen as each boat tried to gain that extra 0.1 knot of speed over the boat on their beam and some really close battles developed.

With such good conditions the fleet all made it home almost within an hour of each other, all accept About Time, who decided to stay in Lymington and recover, having hosted the after party the night before. Tern IV took the gold, with Aquadisiac taking silver and Captain’s Lady taking bronze. Aside from the podium positions there were some great performances from Windreaver, Bugsy 2 and Star Dancer. Also Muddy Waters and Selene IV, who, despite having the least favourable tides, managed to get in a great time.

I can personally thoroughly recommend renting crew from Crayzee Feeling if anyone is in need in the future. They are clean, polite, well-mannered and very keen, plus with the going rate of only a bacon and egg sandwich, they represent fantastic value. Thanks Alexander, you are more than welcome on board Elyse any time you want to see what the front of Crayzee Feeling looks like on the water.

Overall the Ian Brunt Trophy was won by Captain’s Lady, a great performance for their first time racing with the fleet. Tern IV came second, Elyse third, Bugsy fourth and Aquadisiac fifth.

That is it for the racing season this year.  Overall we have had a great season with some fantastic conditions. I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of the crews that have taken part in the races this year, be it for one race, or all of them. Seeing the boats assemble for the start of a race and then everyone chatting and have a good time in the evening is so rewarding. I hope you have all enjoyed the races as much as we have organising them, if you have, please tell a friend as the more boats the merrier, and if you have not, then please let me know so I can improve things for next year. Your feedback is really important, so please do drop me a line if there is something you would like improving and I’ll do my best to accommodate it for next year. Lastly, I would like to say a massive thank you to my wife Kate for all of her help and support in organising the weekends and also for helming our boat to some pretty good results this year.  

Hopefully we’ll see you all at the laying up supper for our yearly silverware reallocation.

You can see the full set of results below.

Thanks everyone.

James