Twickenham open meeting

 

A small fleet of five boats participated in the Twickenham Open on Sunday October 2nd  in very hot conditions. Two visiting boats joined three home boats for a very pleasant day of racing on the Thames.

With a light southerly wind forecast conditions would have been difficult on the usual reach between Twickenham and Richmond, so the decision was taken to race on the reach upstream of Eel Pie island where the southerly breeze would blow straight up the reach.

Rather than the usual Twickenham Open scenery of waterside trees the visitors had the opportunity to admire the riverside gardens of the houses along the Middlesex bank.

As usual the core of the TYC fleet consisted of the Deverson family, with Pip sailing her China Doll and her son Chris sailing his Tigress with his sister Georgina.

As forecast the breeze was light initially but built nicely throughout the day. The hot sunny weather resulted in a lot of motor cruiser traffic and throughout the races there were frequent calls of "mind the line!" from the various anglers along the banks.

In the morning race Rock Lobster (Paradigm 2) and Paradigm Buster (Paradigm 2) pulled clear of the three local boats with Rock Lobster first to complete the two laps. Further back Catatonic and Cerabus were locked together in a close Tigress versus Tigress contest. On the final run Catatonic just managed to creep over the line a few seconds ahead of Cerabus.

After lunch the breeze filled in nicely. There was considerable competition for the favoured starboard end of the line at the start and as a consequence Rock Lobster and Arctic Tern found themselves well over the line. Paradigm Buster took advantage of the poor start by Rock Lobster and was able to hold the lead throughout the four lap race. Rock Lobster gradually overhauled Cerabus and Catatonic to take second place.

The second race produced another close battle between Cerabus and Catatonic. Catatonic had to do penalty turns after tacking directly in front of Cerabus, but on the final lap Cerabus nudged Catatonic on the approach to the windward mark and while Cerabus was doing turns Catatonic was able to pull away downwind to the finish.

In the final race conditions became quite lively. Rock Lobster held off Paradigm Buster with Cerabus staying well ahead of Catatonic throughout.

Overall results

1 Rock Lobster       3533  Mike Day & Anne Murch (Ranelagh)
2 Paradigm Buster   3524  Dave Peacock & Tricia Wood (TVSC)
3 Catatonic            3143  Alistair Edwards & Amy Mcelroy (TYC)
4 Cerabus              3110  Chris Deverson & Georgina Deverson (TYC)
5 Arctic Tern          2700  Pip Deverson & Mark Marston (TYC)