Ajax East Coast Championship 2025 at Royal Harwich Yacht Club

Ajax East Coast Championship 2025 © Kathryn Deaton

With the Ajax Nationals to be held at St Mawes Sailing Club in 2025, this year the Royal Harwich fleet's main event was the East Coast Championship. As ever, boats were based in Shotley Marina for the weekend and racing held in Dovercourt Bay. Thankfully for this report, Alister Main on the support RIB for the weekend was taking diligent notes at each mark rounding, so hopefully there aren't too many gaps where my focus was elsewhere.

The forecast for Saturday was for the bulk of the breeze to push through early in the morning leaving a 12 knots and sunshine on the hottest weekend of the year, so there was some surprise to find white caps in the Stour on our sail out and a growing need for something waterproof. The breeze stuck around and we began in a good F4 WSW with some punchy gusts. RO Ashley Deaton sailed us on 2 lap windward/leeward courses all day, a sensible decision given some of the 30degree swings in direction.

Race 1 started with a long line with a good amount of pin bias and the tide underneath us. On Thunderer (John Williams), we found ourselves in good company lining up on port with Avocet (Ian Sharps), Orwell IV (Richard Merriweather), Indefatigable (Chris Mayhew) and Storm Petrel (Jackie Mckellar), fortunately with only Mars (Mark Blackwell) challenging us on starboard at the favoured end, although prematurely requiring them to return. The first beat was largely a test of boat speed with a port biased leg, Orwell and Avocet with the slight upper hand to reach the first windward mark ahead. Orwell undercooked the lay line and infringed on Avocet, dropping them down to mid pack with their spin. Avocet gybed out early in to the first puff, but lost out as the breeze continued to fill in more for those that stood on. Thunderer led at the bottom, followed by Indefatigable, Avocet and a recovering Orwell. The second beat was still port biased, with gains by timing your move out to the left. Thunderer led from Orwell and Storm Petrel, with the leading two stretching on the pack to finish in that order ahead of Indefatigable.

Ajax East Coast Championship 2025 - photo © Kathryn Deaton

Race 2 also had a long pin biased line with a strengthening tide pushing the fleet over. Mars, Thunderer and Dionysius (Phil Mayhew) all found themselves early at the pin and rounding the end, allowing Orwell and Indefatigable away on port and Avocet on starboard. The left hand side generally paid with a persistent bend heading up the course. Indefatigable lost out from the right hand corner, despite their strong start while the leaders (once again Avocet and Orwell) came in overstood on the port lay line ahead of Telamon (Gordon Sutton) in third. The first run was battles in lots of small groups to keep clear air, with Indefatigable recovering from ninth through to fourth, while the left again paid on the second beat. The finishing order was broadly the same as the end of lap 1, with Avocet managing the gap to Orwell and Thunderer holding off Indefatigable.

The left hand favoured beats turned in to a more permanent shift and a relaying of the course for race 3 about 20 degrees further south of the previous races. This time on a shorter and square line the fleet got away evenly, with no consensus on a favoured end or a favoured side to the beat. Orwell and Avocet picked the shifts to lead from Thunderer, Indefatigable and Puffin (David Pearce). In a right hand phase an early gybe was favoured, but a mix of low and high modes came out fairly even. Plenty of close crossed tacks on the second beat and a similar run gave Avocet a lead at the final mark from Orwell, Thunderer and Indefatigable, all within about 20 seconds. The final leg to the finish was relatively long, almost playing out as a beat in itself rather than the usual covering battle we typically see. Avocet picked shifts and nailed the tacks to stretch out and take the gun, with the next three boats crossing within a handful of seconds, Thunderer ahead of Orwell and Indefatigable.

Ajax East Coast Championship 2025 - photo © Kathryn Deaton

The shallow nature of Dovercourt Bay tends to kick up a short, confused chop in any kind of breeze, making boat speed upwind often hard to keep. Avocet had the legs to lead overnight ahead of Thunderer, Orwell and Indefatigable, but with no discard yet in play. Polly Oliver (Graham Aubrey) unfortunately took the brunt of the chop to come away with a couple of breakages, including a broken tiller in race 2.

Most of the models suggested the NW breeze would drop off just as we left the marina and swing round to anywhere from SE - SW over the next couple of hours at the start of day 2. For once, the forecast was spot on, and as we drifted out towards Pye End an 8 knot SE breeze came towards us while taking the edge of the heat. With the relatively stable breeze, Ash set us sausage / triangles with only a 45 minutes delay from the scheduled start. A much shorter line and a bit of boat bias, meant the inevitable general recall followed and we were punished with a black flag. The second attempt got away cleanly on an even line, although Orwell was squeezed out at the boat so came off the line behind the fleet. After an even beat, Indefatigable judged the tide for the windward mark perfectly (a recurring theme of the day), to lead from Avocet and Thunderer. Indefatigable lost out on the run by standing on too long on starboard, and all three leading boats rounded the first leeward mark together with Mars close behind. The second windward mark played out as for the first as we set off on a deep reach to a gybe mark, Avocet just rolling around the outside and holding on down the second reach and final beat for the gun. Indefatigable tacked quickly out of the final mark and made an impossible lay line stick to pip Thunderer for second. Orwell picked their way through the fleet from eighth at mark 1 to finish fourth.

Indefatigable hit the line at pace in race 5 to lead out to the left and in to the top mark ahead of others from the left in Dionysius, Polly Oliver and Telamon. Avocet was second row and tacked out to ring the bell in the right hand corner. A slight left shift on a congested starboard lay line shuffled things around a little and allowed Indefatigable to escape, not to be seen again. Orwell once again pulled a blinder on the run to move from eighth to third. Behind, Dionysius. Thunderer and Avocet suffered on the right hand side of the run to bring up the tail. The next two laps are hazy as I tried not to let things get the better of me. I'm told Orwell got past Dionysius on the top reach of lap 2 and held this to the finish, with the next bunch of boats all close together, led for a lap by Telamon.

Ajax East Coast Championship 2025 - photo © Kathryn Deaton

Going in to the final race all options were on the table. Avocet led on 7 points, Orwell and Thunderer on 9 with Indefatigable on 10. The final boat finished race 5 at not long before 13:50, with the cut off for a warning signal for the final race at 13:55. Ash didn't hang around and set us off for another sausage / triangle to finish the event. A left shift at 1 minute to go caught most of the fleet out, with only Avocet and Orwell at the favoured pin on the line, although Orwell was pushed over and had to return. Avocet tacked on the gun to comfortably lead the fleet to the right hand side, chased by a recovering Indefatigable, once again spotting the lay lines better than the rest. Orwell came back through to third by the first leeward mark in a race where generally the fleet spread out and there was little place changing after the first lap. Avocet relinquished most of their lead with spinnaker issues on the final run, allowing Indefatigable to close up to right on their transom at the final mark. A final perfect lay line and shooting the finish meant Indefatigable got the last race win by less than a boat length from Avocet. Orwell led Thunderer home for third.

Avocet (Ian Sharps, Doug Sharps, Richard Chenery) sailed fast, consistently and with minimal errors to win the Geoffrey Wrinch Challenge Cup, their first major trophy since 2006, and extremely popular recipients. In the prize-giving on the club lawn after sailing back up river, between them Ian and Doug summarised a brilliant weekend of racing and thanked class captain Jackie McKellar along with Ash and team on the committee boat and support RIB for a really slick and thoroughly enjoyable event. The Nationals will be hosted by St Mawes SC later in July, with a couple of East Coast boats making the trip down.

Overall Results: