It’s been great to sail aboard the 1984 28ft Heard cutter Isabel in the Sussex Yacht Club pursuit series of races this year. Owner Aidan Tuckett, a former wooden boat sailor, recently bought the boat and has been enjoying the sometime novelty of being able to sail whenever he likes, with a well found GRP hull that has proved itself quite slippery as the season progressed. We have got better at hoisting the jackyard tops’l and tacking the jib around the forestay and getting used to how she handles on the wind and getting gybes to be a nice and well mannered gentle swing (mostly!).
And dammit we won! We won the Autumn series (and did well enough in the Spring and Summer’s to bring home a haul of glass, bottles and the coveted silver cup at the Club’s prize-giving ball last Saturday, November 17.
In some ways it’s quite a surprise. We are the only gaffer sailing and going to windward we are outpointed, outpaced and at first outshone by many of the slicker bermudan crews. It’s true that we had a large handicap and that gave us advantages of sailing in clean air most of the time but it also meant, that we couldn’t see how tide was affecting boats ahead of us or where the regular wind convergences were occurring (often in a little band a cable or two off the beach).
And of course as we got better our handicap dwindled… clutching that silver might just be a one off experience! It’s often said but worth repeating, that racing gets you onto your game, honing the motor neurones to get used to the various tasks – whether that’s seeing a catspaw on the water, and anticipating its effect on your apparent wind… and so scooping some water to windward, or handling the backstay or other lines that inhabit the cockpit of a gaffer. As you get more used to these you can then spend more time at the finer tasks, changing sails or getting your eyes out of the boat, improving awareness of tide and weather.
Sometime in the late summer Aidan produced a jib to use as a watersail and reckoned it took our sail area up to about 900sqft, and our speed up, perhaps a quarter to half a knot. It did not take Aidan’s son Joe (the other regular crew) long to rig and you could feel a little pressure, on the sheet tied to the clew. It was a bit too obvious to call it anything like a secret weapon but we felt like better sailors when we employed it, linking ourselves back to the times of the clippers and their studding sails, bonnets and watersails as they strove for speed on the downwind routes around the globe (as if!!).
So thanks Aidan (and SYC) that was a lot of fun! Dan Houston
SYC Autumn Pursuit Series 2018 Results
Sussex Yacht Club
| Rank | Boat | Class | Sail number | Skipper | New HC | R1 | R2 | R3 | R6 | R7 | Total | Nett |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Isabel | Heard 28 | 42 | Aidan Tuckett | -15 | 1.0 | 4.0 | (11.0) | 1.0 | 1.0 | 18.0 | 7.0 |
| 2nd | Flying Fish | Feeling 1040 | K 1616T | Chris Redman | +22 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 8.0 | (11.0 DNF) | 7.0 | 30.0 | 19.0 |
| 3rd | Tyke | X332 | GBR 7662T | Brian Thomas | +19 | (19.0 DNC) | 1.0 | 2.0 | 11.0 DNF | 11.0 | 44.0 | 25.0 |
| 4th | Bombardier | Elan 333 | GBR 982R | Terry Kinch | +17 | (19.0 DNC) | 19.0 DNC | 1.0 | 2.0 | 5.0 | 46.0 | 27.0 |
| 5th | Moonlight Saunter | Feeling 4113 | GBR 4114T | David Skinner | +23 | 6.0 | 3.0 | 9.0 | (11.0 DNF) | 10.0 | 39.0 | 28.0 |
| 6th | Contessa of Dart | Contessa 32 | GBR 3110 | Nigel Kemp | -3 | 4.0 | 6.0 | (19.0 DNC) | 11.0 DNF | 19.0 DNC | 59.0 | 40.0 |
| 7th | Vagabond | Morgan Giles 30 | GBR 3899L | Cornelis van Rietschoten | -11 | 7.0 | (19.0 DNC) | 12.0 | 19.0 DNC | 3.0 | 60.0 | 41.0 |
| 8th | Escape | Bavaria 31C | GBR 1418L | David Nunn | -3 | (19.0 DNC) | 19.0 DNC | 10.0 | 11.0 DNF | 4.0 | 63.0 | 44.0 |
| 9th | Ariel | Contessa 32 | K 5996 | Bob Braithwaite | -10 | (19.0 DNC) | 5.0 | 19.0 DNC | 19.0 DNC | 2.0 | 64.0 | 45.0 |
| 10th | Little Blue | Dufour 34P | GBR 9674T | Tim Worsfield | +21 | 3.0 | (19.0 DNC) | 7.0 | 19.0 DNC | 19.0 DNC | 67.0 | 48.0 |
| 11th | Zebedee | Hanse 342 | GBR 1523L | Miles Mayall | +18 | (19.0 DNC) | 19.0 DNC | 4.0 | 19.0 DNC | 6.0 | 67.0 | 48.0 |
| 12th | Delfina | Beneteau First 34.7 | GBR 4115L | Justin Barber | +26 | 8.0 | (19.0 DNC) | 3.0 | 19.0 DNC | 19.0 DNC | 68.0 | 49.0 |
| 13th | Devils Advocate | Beneteau First 45f5 | K 666T | Dave Ramus | +29 | 9.0 | (19.0 DNC) | 6.0 | 19.0 DNC | 19.0 DNC | 72.0 | 53.0 |
| 14th | Trilogy | Westerly Ocean 33 | 3 | Neville Thurlow | +4 | 5.0 | (19.0 DNC) | 19.0 DNC | 11.0 DNF | 19.0 DNC | 73.0 | 54.0 |
| 15th | Nirvana | N Fun 30 | GBR 6686R | Mark Sharp | +13 | (19.0 DNC) | 19.0 DNC | 19.0 DNC | 11.0 DNF | 8.0 | 76.0 | 57.0 |
| 16th | Hoya | Vancouver 34P | GBR 4741L | George Bliss | +2 | (19.0 DNC) | 19.0 DNC | 19.0 DNC | 11.0 DNF | 9.0 | 77.0 | 58.0 |
| 17th | Josh | Sonar | GBR 535 | Sussex Yacht Club | +2 | (19.0 DNC) | 19.0 DNC | 5.0 | 19.0 DNC | 19.0 DNC | 81.0 | 62.0 |
| 18th | Karsha | Seamaster 925 | SM 2998Y | Chris O’Neil | -10 | (19.0 DNC) | 19.0 DNC | 13.0 | 19.0 DNC | 19.0 DNC | 89.0 | 70.0 |
