Pursuit Race
Sunday 26th October 2025
Report, scores & photos by Russ Chilcott

We had a lovely morning with bright sunshine, the marker buoys were set out, the Skippers had a quick briefing and racing got underway on time at 9.30am. We raced a long(ish) 2 x triangle course with a gate at the leeward end to make things interesting. The wind shifts played their usual games but there was always a good breeze and on the odd occasion enough to over-power your boat.

Sue set the early pace winning both the first 2 races but then followed that with a 7th, 1st, 7th and 2nd place. That’s the joy of this event; a win drops you into the C fleet so the next race your giving A fleet a 1 minute head start and those in B 30 seconds to get away. This also happened to a lesser extent to others like me, Graham and Ed (Olliver) but not so much Rick who was very consistent all morning – and that’s the “trick” to doing well in this event.

There are no discards as a poor/low place finish means you get to move into A fleet and the advantage of a good head start in the next race but then you’ve already collected lots of unwanted points!

By the 10th and last race everyone except Rick had had at least one really bad race result so we all knew he was odds-on favourite to win it. Starting in C fleet at the back he then had his worst race all morning not able to gain an inch on anyone ahead of him he finished the race last but one in 7th place.

Time to do the maths…..and the winner was – Rick by a single point ahead of me (ouch!) 28 to 29.

Graham won the final race which was enough to snatched 3rd place (32pts) from Sue (33). Not too far behind was Ed in 5th place on 37. Malcolm had his moments being “pursued” but held on well to win 2 races finishing on 41pts with Roy, Mike and Keith finishing in 7th (54), 8th (57) and 9th (58) respectively.

All in all it had been a good event, hopefully those who took part enjoyed it. I know for certain Rick did as it is the first club trophy he has won and he was smiling like a cat that had got the cream!

Well done Rick.

Rick (right) collection his trophy 

The full results are here;
Pursuit Race results 2025