Big entry for Mersea Week
The 48th annual Mersea Week saw a bumper entry of over 130 boats, including nine Smacks, 21 Classic Yachts and Ga ers and 22 Mersea Open Fisherman’s Boats (MFOBs), writes Julian Lord. Five days of racing took place on Essex’s River Blackwater estuary in a range of conditions, Monday’s first day being the most extreme, with kedging needed early on and 35-knot gusts in driving rain later.
Such an important part of the week, the Smacks looked spectacular, especially downwind with clouds of sail set, and the overall winner was CK395 Puritan, beating CK171 Peace into second place by a single point, with CK52 Kate in third. After enjoying a successful Cowes Classics Week, CK318 Alberta was next up in fourth.
The largest ever Classic Yachts and Ga ers class was divided into two groups, with another Cowes Classics Week prize winner, the Tumlare Zest, winning the final race and with it the ‘A’ Division by a single point from Scorpio, the leading Stella. Third was Strider, the first Nordic Folkboat and fourth the beautiful International OD Mitzi, whose week was sadly cut short when some of the crew went down with Covid. Seven of the eleven boats in the Division had at least one top three finish. In the ‘B’ division, the Ga Cutter Nesta came out on top, with tie-break rules needed to separate the next three boats.
The 19ft Ga er Fifi, complete with topsail, the Buchanan Patica and Kim Holman’s first ever design, Phialle, finishing second, third and fourth respectively.
After several race ending capsizes on the first day, and the cancellation of racing on the second day, the MFOBs enjoyed some close tussles during the final part of the week. The di erence in size, speed and crew numbers between the biggest and smallest boats is considerable, and the 22-strong entry start together but are divided for results. The Fast Division needed the third tie-break (the final race result) to decide that Spray took top spot from Mystery, with Prince ahead of Miss X in third and fourth. In the Slow Division, Grey Goose, Ally Lump, Jack and Wild Goose took the top four places.