Cutty Sark Bolt 2018

The day dawned with a grey sky – a stark contrast to the sunshine we experienced earlier in the week. The wind blew from the west with some north in it, then, from anywhere really.

Never the less, the turnout was truly impressive including four Fireflies, Lasers, Merlins, an Albacore, a Wayfarer and three National 18s.

We set sail downstream towards Lensbury, returning via a cross river leg on the way up. OOD Brian Southcott set the perfect course for the very tricky conditions.

The first starting Fireflies held their lead for two rounds, with Jim Hamilton in Fiasco in front. Then Matt Peregrine Jones in his Laser caught up. The other classes started coming through in the third round to make it a perfect Pursuit Race with close racing towards throughout.

Peter Mason, who donated the Bolt when he was Commodore, presented the trophy together with boxes of tea which he gives every year. He gave a fascinating brief history of the Cutty Sark. Peter was assisted by Jim Green in presenting the prizes.

Many thanks to OOD Brian Southcott assisted by Colin Stokes, Carolyn Reeves, Peter Simpson and Ken Thatcher.

The £115 collected in Entry Fees will be donated to the Royal Maritime Museum in Greenwich which now owns Cutty Sark.

Photo: Jim Green

The results are:

1^st Merlin ‘Passing Cloud’ Richard Harris and Emma MacDonald

2^nd Merlin ‘Avenger’ Andrew Harris and Sarah Warren

3^rd Merlin ‘Crescendo’ – Berry Ritchie and Sue Harris

4^th Laser ‘Insx-ive’ – Matthew Peregrine Jones

5^th Merlin ‘Bambusa’ – Peter and Richard Mason

6^th Merlin ‘Fair Kop’ – Barry Mourant and Ian Ramage

7^th National 18’ ‘Trojan’ – Peter and Mike Adams

8^th Firefly ‘Fiasco’ – Jim Hamilton

9^th National 18’ ‘Orion’ – Alan Green and Peter Konidaris

10^th Wayfare 9135 – Alan Hall and Cherry Ehrlich

11^th Albacore ‘Cobblers’ – David Baker and Jim Green

12^th Laser ‘Ultra Violet’ – Constantin Gerber

13^th Laser ‘Road of Bones’ – Kaan Yargici

14^th Laser ‘Ironing Board II’ – Ben Ramage

15^th National 18’ ‘Antedote’ – Chris Pollard and Caroline Stillwell

16^th Laser ‘Phew’ – Henry Defries

17^th Firefly ‘Ella’ – Florian Krueger and Sarah Altun

18^th Firefly ‘Genesis’ – Matthew and Anna Dalton

19^th Merlin ‘Shoestring’ – Peter Johnson and Carolyne Vines

20^th Merlin ‘Precious’ – John Adams and Phil Abbey

21^st Merlin ‘Ragtime’ – Rupert Fletcher and James Berry

Retd Firefly ‘Scallywag’ – Tim and Ed Medcalf, Merlin ‘Pikey’ Peter Impey and Tim G