4th GW Smith Trophy Race, Thursday July 25th
Published 16:31 on 29 Jul 2024
It was a grey evening with the odd bout of drizzle brought in by a light south-westerly to keep us cool. There was an occasional break in the clouds to give an atmospheric glimpse of the setting sun, and the evening's racing was enlivened by the appearance of a seal towards the Surrey bank.
Given the gloominess of the weather there was a good entry of 13 boats, 3 Merlins, 3 Toppers helmed by Juniors whose fathers were also in the fleet, 2 ILCA7s, 2 Solos, a N18, Matt P-J in his Rooster 8.1 and one of the club's training 2000s, helmed and crewed by members of the Tamesis RYA training team.
Rupert Fletcher, the OOD set a dog leg course starting towards Canbury.
From the start the racing was close, with place changes throughout the race. After the first lap, Joe McLaughlin in his Solo was 1st, followed by Chris and William Balmbro in their Merlin with Tim Barr in the second Solo in 3rd. As time went on the bigger sail area of the Merlins started to tell and Chris and William Balmbro took the lead after the 2nd lap, closely followed by Peter Johnson and Carolyne Vines in their Merlin, with Joe hanging on in 3rd. Matters had changed slightly by the end of lap 3, with Peter and Carolyne wresting the lead from the Balmbros and Matt P-J in his Rooster moving through the fleet to 3rd. By the end of the penultimate lap the Merlins led with the Balmbros back in the lead, Peter and Carolyne 2nd and John and Zoë Adams 3rd in their Merlin. Places continued to change in the last lap with the Balmbros losing their lead after checking the water depth over the punting ledge (not deep enough!), Peter and Carolyne taking the lead over the line, followed by John and Zoë in 2nd, who in turn were followed by the N18 of another Adams family, Mike and Jennifer. Lyra Wade was the first junior helm in her ILCA7 and Max McLaughlin the leading Topper ahead of Arthur P-J and Huw McLaughlin.
Places changed once the handicaps had been applied, with the Solos taking the first two places, Joe ahead of Tim Barr, with Peter and Carolyne 3rd in their Merlin, followed by Marcus Chavasse in his ILCA7 ahead of Matt P-J and the Rooster 8.1.
We are now at the halfway stage in the Trophy. Matt P-J is the only helm to be able to count four scoring races and leads the competition. Joe McLaughlin is second still counting a DNC and has some good results to count, so positions could change if he sails again and is able to discard his DNC.
So with 5 races to sail in August, and only 4 to count, there is still plenty of opportunity for those who have sailed so far, and those that have not, to win the 2024 GW Smith Trophy, but you need to sail!
Thanks to Rupert Fletcher as OOD, with Alison Cooper in the box and Tim Medcalf in the patrol boat, who shanghaied Beth McLaughlin to help and to keep an eye on her husband and sons on the water.
The sailing was followed by an excellent supper of Chicken pie (or a very tasty homemade veggie pie) with broccoli and carrots and a tomato and cucumber salad, rounded off by apple crumble and custard. Thanks to Jean-Michel aided and abetted by Cressida, Perry and Jessica in the kitchen and bar.
Last updated 12:19 on 10 October 2024