Plymouth to Fowey Race Report

Plymouth to Fowey, 2024, Coastal Race 3 Race Report

Seven boats took part, which is a record number in recent years. We all had a great sail over on the Friday before the race in strong northerly winds, with some sunshine but it got chilly at times. The sea state was fair. Many of us enjoyed (or endured) the pleasures of the Barbican on the Friday night and the Bellissima crew certainly had some great fish at Rockfish.

The forecast on the race day was for northerly winds, mainly of about 4 to 6 knots most of the way along the course, and because of the potential lack of wind the Race Officer decided to send us on Course 1, which was a direct route from Plymouth to Fowey, rather than the longer Courses, 2 or 3.

It was dead downwind from the startline towards the Draystine and Rame Head, and to everybody’s surprise the winds suddenly strengthened just before the start, and for most of the race were in the range of 12 to 20kn, mainly northerly. There was a tight pack until Rame Head when it gradually dispersed and there was lots of use of Spinnakers and Code Zeros for most of the race. The sea state was pretty flat and the sun shone and it was a terrific race towards Fowey. As so often happens, the approach to Fowey was tricky and multple tacks were needed to cross the Finish Line.

Bellissima croseed the fine first in the IRC fleet, but Afrita took the honours with a spread of about 22 minutes in the elapsed time and 8 minutes in the corrected times of the 3 IRC entrants.

In the four boats in the RYAYTC fleet, Janala crossed the line first, with Samahdi actually taking the honours, with a spread of about 36 minutes in elapsed times but only 7 minutes in corrected times, so very close racing across the board. Jamala was the sole short-handed boat and took the prize in the RYAYTC shorthanded competition.

We thank all of the organisers, especially at the Plymouth end, and this race always seems to be a great race, in and amongst the large Plymouth fleet, and we hope that the numbers competing in the future will continue to grow.

PS Please do send me any photos for me to add to the gallery, as most of the attached photos were taken by the Bellissima crew and by Tim Rowley and we would love to have more from every race for me to post

Anthony Nathan