The Thames Raiders are supporting Laseraid, a sail across the Channel in Laser dinghies starting in Sandgate and finishing at Sangatte, starting early in the morning on Thursday 18th July.  

As ever with sailing the weather comes first, and messes up all carefully laid plans.  But if it plays ball we will stay at the Breakers on Riviera Road in Sandgate on Wednesday night and set off from Folkestone Harbour at 8-9 am on Thursday.  The Lasers are quite slow and we will have to stop to regroup to get through the shipping lanes.  So the crossing might take around 6 hours but that's a guess.  We will have two support ribs organised by Dan Hawkes, and safety has been thought through thoroughly.  The start time has already been brought forward by 24 hours to avoid the brisk North Easterlies forecast for the weekend, and if the wind is too strong we won't go.

The inspiration for this expedition comes from a group of people from Brightlingsea Sailing Club, all of whom have some contact with Brain Tumours or neuroscience.  It was Mike Hare's idea - he is a GP whose wife has a problem with a brain tumour.  So we are raising money for the Brain Tumour charity.  We would love to raise as much as we possibly can and it would be great if any members of your society would support them.  Mike has set up a JustGiving account www.justgiving.com/michael-hare.

Round The Goodwins - Record Breaking Raiders !!

On Thursday August the 2nd Thames Raiders set out to break the Round the Goodwins Race Record of 3hrs 1 Minute set in 2011 by the 54' Rocketship Oystercatcher XX V111 owned by Essexman Richard Mathews. The Team consisted of the F18 Catamaran crewd by Simon Northrop and Harry Willett with a support Rib crewed by Lance Oram and Daniel Hawkes.

Starting last with the fastest class 1 boats in Ramsgate week and giving the staggered slower classes up to 1/2 hr head start the challenge was on but very early on the F18 was making swift progress through the fleet in a stiff 18 knot south Westerley, after just over 1hr 15mins  the boys had overtaken every boat and rounded the first mark the south east Goodwin buoy off Dover in the lead.  From here the challenge was immense as the sea state was huge and with the boat sailing dead downwind to the next waypoint slow was the fast way forward as if the boat was allowed to power up it would steam head long into the wave with deadly consequences, the F18 proved sea worthy still and held out for half an hour of punishment as even at half throttle the next mark quickly appeared as the tide was now running North and with a 40 degree turn to port for the next waypoint the course was a perfect broad reach with the waves calming down due to being in the lee of the  famous sandbanks. This leg was a screamer and the Rib was struggling to keep up with boys who were averaging around 20 knots on this leg. With just two hours gone the boys rounded the final mark and with the finish line off Ramsgate nearly visible the record was certain to fall and even though a rain cloud had to be negotiated slowing the boat to snails pace near the finish the boys crossed the line beating the record by over 9 and a half minutes and over 1 hour in front of the first yacht a 44' racing sled.

The challenge was the talk of the bar in the Royal Temple Yacht Club that evening and goes to show just how great theses sports catamarans are !!

Raid Yaverland August 2011

Raid toward Yaverland - August 2011

Monday

At 9.30am on Monday 9^th August the Thames Raiders set out from Brightlingsea. The target – Yaverland on the Isle of Wight where the F18 National Championship was starting on the Friday. 167 miles across the Thames Estuary, past Dover, Dungeness, Beachy Head and Selsey Bill.

By 12.00 noon we were outside Ramsgate Harbour, after 37 miles of exhiliarating downwind sailing in a Force 5-6 Westerly. Average speed 16 knots, allowing for some doglegs needed to avoid sandbanks in the Thames estuary.

The forecast showed that the wind was due to increase, and we knew how rough the sea gets off Dover in those conditions. So the decision was made to spend the afternoon at the Broadstairs folk festival

Tuesday

All was well as we passed Dover and Dungeness, but the wind died when we got to Hastings, and it became clear that in a headwind the remaining 20 mile trip to Brighton was unrealistic. So we headed for Eastbourne where we met up with ex Hurricane sailor Keith Simmons as we went into the marina lock. Envious eyes fell on his large cruiser, which gave us all a comfortable night.

Eastbourne Marina - a comfortable night aboard Keith Simmons' cruiser

Wednesday

Now we were under pressure, with 60 miles still to go and bad weather forecast for Wednesday afternoon and Thursday. The Westerly direction made it a headwind all the way, and we were one man down after Mike Hare left to attend to family duties. We left at 7am and were around Beachy Head by 8am.

Our first serious problem struck at Brighton when a shroud plate failed on one of the F18s. Luckily Kyle’s sharp eyes spotted this before the mast came down, and he managed to support the mast with trapeze wires while we sailed to Brighton Sailing Club. A two hour repair, aided by Brightlingsea SC member Jack Wills who appeared on the beach saw us off again. But by now the wind was rising fast, the waves were large, the team was tired and the decision was made to pull in to Shoreham and ring Hugo Sunnucks for help with a trailer for the last 30 miles.

Rounding Beachy Head

What did we learn?

We learnt that its better not to try to sail long distances against the prevailing wind. We’ve learnt this twice now, as we had equally hard work heading west down the channel to Alderney in 2009.

But we also demonstrated again that raiding is great fun, and that huge distances can be safely covered in small catamarans with experienced sailors supported by a rib. The format works well, and racing two matched boats against each other is enjoyable even after hours of sailing.

Most importantly we rediscovered the pleasure of the hospitality and assistance afforded to us by those we met along the way. Many thanks to Simon Northrop who acted as shore co-ordinator and looked after us in Ramsgate: to Keith Simmons who allowed us to stay on his yacht in Eastbourne: to Jack Wills who helped us on the stony Beach in front of the Brighton Hilton, and joined the raid as far as Shoreham. And to Chris Lintern who made us feel welcome at Shoreham Sailing club.

William Sunnucks..

August 2011

Jack Wills, Dan Hawkes, Kyle Stoneham, Cherri Farren and Jack's girlfriend at Shoreham packing up the boats.

Round Sheppey race

The Raider's 3.55m wide M20 Vampire had a problem getting round Sheppey in the 2009 Round Sheppey race. The rail bridge linking the island to the mainland is only 3.5m above the water at high water, and unless the Vampire could be there 45 minutes before there was going to be trouble.

With help from spectators William Sunnucks and Ryan Crawford managed to get the boat through with the capsized hull scraping the underside of the bridge.

2009 Archipelago Raid

Raiders William Sunnucks and Simon Farren were third in the Archipelago Raid, an orienteering event in the 100,000 islands between Finland and Sweden. See http://www.archipelagoraid.com/

F18 World Championships

The raid back to England from the F18 World Championships held in Knokke Heist Belgium was cancelled due to strong South Westerly winds. The original plan was to sail to Ramsgate on the Saturday and then on to Brightlingsea on the Sunday accompanied by Dan Hawkes in the 6.3m rib. But force 6-7 SW winds were forecast and the decision was clear.

Raiders sailing in the 180 boat championship fleet included William Sunnucks and Simon Farren (25th), Simon Northrop and Robyn Ford (58th) and Nick Dewhirst (silver fleet).

Ronde om Texel

Raiders Will Sunnucks and Simon Farren took line honours in the 2009 Ronde om Texel race in their M20 Vampire catamaran.