2009 Pattinson Cup Report

The WMYC Pattinson cup started from the Branklet buoy in the River Crouch on a North Easterly forecast with potential severe weather warnings. A testing course of just over 60 miles was set to take the boats back to West Mersea. The fleet roared out of the Crouch with 12-15knots of breeze on the nose until The Whittaker where the wind began to build and many boats had to peel to smaller headsails. When everyone had approached Barrow Number 2 it was a 10mile slog to windward up to the North East Gunfleet during which the wind began to build toward 25-30 knots. Unfortunately this led to a few boats retiring.

Once round the North East Gunfleet, however, the race turned into a sleigh ride down to the Holland Gap Diffuser mark off Clacton, giving boats and crew time to prepare themselves for the next six mile beat up to Wallet Number 2.

By the time the Class One boats had reached number 2, Stan Fenton's J122 Jedi Knight was out in front with Judy & Jason Payne-James' Dufour 44 Heartbeat 3 of Burnham and Alan Bartlett's newly refurbished Humphrey's 11m Inn Spirit in hot pursuit. In Class Two Adrian Lower's J109 Jaguar of Burnham got line honours with Titian following ten minutes behind. Bob Fawke's Carter 37 Tigo IV was the first boat home in Class 3, some way ahead of the rest of their Class.

In the final analysis, Inn Spirit capped a superb weekend with an overall and Class 1 win. Tigo IV finished second overall and won class 3. Class 2 winner, Jaguar of Burnham, was 4th overall.

Teams now have two weeks to recover before battle is joined once more with racing for the MYC Jane's Cup from Burnham to the Medway and then the fleet race to London to celebrate EAORA's 60th birthday at St Katharine's Dock.