Battle of the Classes Pursuit Race
Royal Victoria Dock, London

Report by Dusty Miller
17th January 2010

The ‘Battle of the Classes’ Pursuit Race 2010 took place on January 17th the London International Boat Show at ExCeL, docklands.

Surrounded by the exhibition centre and various high-rise buildings, the Royal Victoria Dock proved to be a challenging venue with variable and incredibly shifty winds. A rather narrow windward/leeward course was set alongside ExCel for the high quality 51 boat strong fleet.

The Mirror starting first and the ominously named ‘Shadow’ Catamaran last….some 48 minutes later. After 25 minutes Kestrel 1558 was released alongside two Phantoms and two RS Vareos and after a good start set off after the early starters.

It was a day for keeping ‘eyes out of the boat’ as there was barely a minute without some sort of near miss with a Thames A Rater or some strange, fresh out of the mould with wings, trapeze and asymmetric, soap dish!

For once it was good to see ‘proper’ boats (ones that you sit in and not on) doing well. The shifty conditions meant the need for quick tacks and gybes was paramount. Not surprisingly the single-handers and two sailed boats such as the Graduate, Albacore and Firefly were very difficult to catch.

We did our best, even trading blows for a whole lap with a B14 that couldn’t un-lap himself. 1558 made steady but unspectacular progress through the fleet while keeping most of the faster boats behind. Only the incredibly proportioned Thames A Rater and the single handed Cirrus Halo (no, we’d never heard of it either) managed to get past us right at the death….very annoying!

The very well sailed winning Graduate declared they were glad they didn’t have a spinnaker, something John would agree with after a frustrating afternoon trying to keep the black spinnaker of 1558 full of breeze.

All in all, a very enjoyable sail was had and we finished 14th. I hope that we did the Kestrel proud and that we can get a pair of Kestrels on the start line next year.

Dusty