Porthscatho Regatta

The gorgeous spell of weather was still with us and it was pretty much perfect for a passage to Portscatho and a race - OK maybe perfection would have been an offshore breeze rather than an easterly, as Nigel pointed out, but let’s not split hairs,

On Board Evelyn were Brad on the helm with Chris W, Diana, Nigel and myself.  The 5 of us were the crew for the journey up the the coast before picking up Chris and Cath in Portscatho.

Demelza had headed off early to claim honours in the passage race (Something of a coup as no one else seemed to know it was on!) but we departed St Mawes around 11.45 which still allowed plenty of time for a leisurely cruise up the coast into a steady Easterly breeze around force 3.  There was a slight swell but in the sunshine and warmth no one was complaining . We arrived in good time off Portscatho where we were able to experiment with heaving-to before heading in to pick up Chris and Cath who joined us by RIB after a somewhat precarious transfer.

By around 2pm it became clear that there was going to be a reasonable turnout for the regatta with Florence, Demelza, Abigail Rose, Agnes, Mabel , Rebecca, Lottie and Evelyn taking part.  

The race started at 2.30 pm. A triangular course was set as is normal for Portscatho with 3 rounds and Evelyn had a very good start up by the committee boat crossing narrowly ahead of Florence and Lotte and upwind of the rest of the fleet.

The first leg was close. Florence got away from the fleet very rapidly after the start. The rest, though, including Evelyn enjoyed some good competitive sailing  throughout the first leg with Brad doing a great job to round the first mark in 3rd place.  Unfortunately the next downwind leg cost us a few places.  We remained in contention for the rest of the race but  could not recover the lost places and, eventually,  with a dropping breeze but still rather lumpy sea the course was shortened. Evelyn came in a plucky 7th.   

After dropping off Chris and Cath the remaining crew set off for home.  There were a few nervous moments as the breeze showed every sign of dropping but luckily it held out to allow us a gentle cruise back to St  Mawes arriving back at around 6.30 pm.  

A tricky wind against tide pick up was achieved by Brad and after a rather interesting drop of the topsail (which was upside down, inside out and back to front at one point) Evelyn was tidied up and we all headed back to shore for a quick one in the club.  

A wonderful day had by all.