The inaugural “Alphabet Race” was held on Spring Bank Holiday Monday, 26th May to celebrate completion of the activity to replace all the club buoys with new ones. The weather forecast for a typical wet and windy bank holiday may have put some people off, but 18 intrepid sailors braved the conditions. The Alphabet Race is the brainchild of John Aston, who acted as Race Officer for the event. GWSC has 23 fixed marks, designated with letters of the alphabet (O, U and V are absent). Y and Z have recently been added and T, which had been missing for a while has been replaced. John thought the race would be a good way to remind people where they all are.
At the briefing John explained the conduct of the race, with the start line between two orange-flagged buoys in front of the club. All buoys had to be rounded in alphabetical order, with the finish line between two blue-flagged buoys close to where the start line had been. The total straight-line distance of the entire course is 33.6 km. As can be seen from the map, the buoys are not named in a logical sequence, but mostly for historical or geographical reasons.
For example, Diddington buoy is named for the original watercourse that ran through the valley where Grafham Water now is and the nearby hamlet of Diddington. East Perry buoy is located off East Perry point and Savage is near where Savages Creek enters the lake. Baker is named for Freddie Baker, the first Commodore of GWSC. This means that alphabetical order dictates that many of the legs of the course covered at least half the length of the lake, including a run of 2.5km from Halfway to Inlet and a beat of nearly 2km directly back to J.
The south westerly breeze seemed benign from the shore as the race got underway, with a pleasant run from the start to Aqueduct in the extreme south-eastern corner of the lake. However, there was plenty of breeze away from the sheltered southern area and white horses could soon be seen on the northern half of the lake. As the wind built, gusts of more than 30 knots, accompanied by wind shifts of more than 50 degrees, taxed the competitors.
Sailors had the option of completing the whole course, or stopping at one of the intermediate buoys with a corrected time calculated based on how far they had sailed. The increasingly gusty conditions toward the west of the lake saw the Lark of Nigel and Fiona Denchfield opting to finish at Halfway, the ISO of Samuel and James Lacey calling it a day after Inlet, following a swim near Fastnet en route to J and three of the four ILCAs, Richard Major and Chris Waters in ILCA6s and Chris Clarke in an ILCA4 deciding enough was enough after dunkings in the vicinity of Lymage, in the far south west corner. Andrew Clarke, sailing a Dart 15, called it a day just past the halfway mark at Middle.
Two of the sailboarders, Stuart Endacott and Alex Hickson came ashore for a break and then went back out to carry on round a few more marks. Ali Reynolds, on a foiling windsurfer, completed the whole course in just under two hours, a fantastic feat of endurance and came ashore with a huge smile on his face. The sight of him foiling down the run from Halfway to Inlet was spectacular. The last few legs, from Waghorn to X, Y and Z were closely fought between Ali and Will Smith and Jon Sweet in a Formula 18 catamaran, with Will and Jon ahead approaching Waghorn, only to see Ali scream away on the reaches to X and Y. Will and Jon crossed the finish line first, a couple of minutes ahead of Ali, with Mark Aldridge in a Dart 15 a few minutes behind.
Next to complete the course was Will Russell sailing an RS600, who managed to recover after nearly being tipped in backwards a few yards from the line. Finishing fifth on the water was the Scorpion sailed by Martyn Denchfield and Claire Geoghegan. Pete Windsor in an ILCA6 was still battling round, having avoided the swim that took out his other ILCA colleagues. The RO dispatched a RIB to ask him if he wanted to stop, but he was determined to complete the course. The prizegiving was held in the cafe and the prizes awarded were:
Endeavour prize – Pete Windsor; 1st Windsurfer – Ali Reynolds; 3rd place – Will Russell (RS600); 2nd place – Mark Aldridge (Dart 15); 1st place and winners of the Alphabet Race Trophy – Will Smith and Jon Sweet (Formula 18).
Very well done to all who competed in this test of endurance and particularly to the six boats who completed the whole 33.6km course. The actual distance sailed by boats was considerably more than this, taking account of beating upwind and hunting for elusive marks; for example Will and Jon recorded a total distance sailed by themselves of 37.2km! It was great to see the event supported by such a wide variety of craft, including the two foiling windsurfers and one wing foiler, three catamarans and a variety of single and double handed dinghies. Many thanks to John and all the other volunteers manning RIBs, timekeeping and recording results.
The final results can be seen here.
Alongside the race was the chance for games onshore, including Kubb and Croquet and a Treasure Hunt. This involved participants finding clues placed in the area around the clubhouse, culminating in an anagram to describe where to collect their prizes. The treasure hunt was won by Rowan Farman, assisted by his sister Molly, who solved the final clue to collect their prizes from Anna in the Office.