The start of the Raid had been delayed to allow all Raiders to take part in the East Coast Piers Race organised by the Marconi Sailing Club. The catamarans start at Osea Pier and sail through gates at Bradwell, Colne Point, Clacton Pier and Walton Pier before returning to the Blackwater. The race is handicapped using SCHRS numbers which are calculated objectively from a small number of measurements (length, beam, sail area etc.).
An early 08.30 race start saw Simon Northrop take an early handicap lead. Having hugged the right hand shore all the way out of the estuary he rounded the first gate at Bradwell in 5th position just behind the bigger tornados. Hugo Sunnucks and Adam Dorrell also started well and at one stage they were in front of Hugo's father William sailing with Simon "Fraz" Fareen on the F18.
The long run to Colne Point suited the tiger of Northrop and he held position in the fleet as the wind started going right, as the lead boats approached Colne the Nacra of William/Fraz closed down Northrop a bit but both were a long way ahead of any other F18s at this stage. Clacton Pier was the next gate and Northrop took a small gain on the other F18s but this proved to be his downfall as after Clacton the wind swung further right and he was caught out to sea in no breeze while the other F18s barrelled down close to the shore in more wind.
As Walton Pier approached it was clear both Northrop and Sunnucks would have to drop the spinnakers to get to the gate and this allowed another F18 (Stuart Gummer) to get past. On the return leg Northrop chose to hug the shore in an attempt to regain lost places but by now the wind had dropped to nothing and after a long wait it returned from offshore and gave the advantage to those who had gone that way to find wind.
The long stretch back to Marconi was a fairly light affair but as usual the fleet compressed at Bradwell and gave the slower boats chance to catch up. At this stage we don't have the full results but suffice to say William/Fraz made up for saturdays race by beating fellow raider Northrop who was none too impressed with his luck !!!!
After a quick derig of the Northrop F18 the Raiders loaded the rib and tied the 2 F18s behind and set off for ramsgate, the cats were towed along at a fair rate of knots as the wind had totally gone leaving behind a nice flat sea. The tow took 3 hours and leaves the raiders in a good position to head for Rye or Folkestone but we will update the blog later with our positi0n.
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