EVENTS CORRECTIONS
Yogaff will not be running this year
as stated, but the Solent OGA will
hold a regatta at Yarmouth (IoW)
for gaff-rigged boats this 2-5 June
called Yarmouth Gaffers Regatta
- It will be a purely water-based
event. See oga.org.uk for more. We
also omitted to mention the special
Dartmouth Classics Weekend, held
for the first time on an even year.
This will run from 9-10 July,
immediately before the Plymouth
- La Rochelle start the following
Tuesday (12 July). There will be a
passage race from Dartmouth to
Plymouth on 11 July to connect the
two events. For more details visit
dartmouthclassics.org.uk
CB COMPETITION WINNER
A fortnight on Shtandart
CB reader Martin Williams won our recent competition for a
fortnight’s voyage for two on the Tall Ship Shtandart,
thought to be the nearest thing to the Cutty Sark. He plans
to embark in February 2017 in Portugal or the Canaries.GRENADA SAILING WEEKVictory for The Blue Peter
It was a small but competitive fleet in the Classics Class for the 2016 Island Water World Grenada Sailing Week. With 20-knot
winds over the five days the conditions were perfect for the three circa 60-footers (18m). Mat Barker's The Blue Peter (
64ft/19.5m Alfred Mylne cutter) was the boat to beat. Second place was a fierce fight. Galatea (1899 70ft/21.3m Axel Nygren
bermudan yawl) may well have been the quicker boat, but if anyone can upset the bookies it is Micky Jarrold on Lilly Maid
(1904, 58ft/17.7m Luke Brothers gaff cutter). At the end of day four they were tied with two second places each.
On the last day Galatea took it. Ben JefferiesCORY SILKENVelsheda has beaten Ranger and Topaz to take overall victory in the
21st St Barths Bucket. Racing in gusts of up to 21 knots was at times
a nervy business and Ranger and Velsheda in particular had a
race to the wire. On the penultimate day of racing, Velsheda’s
starboard primary winch failed, but engineers on the yacht
and her mothership Bystander worked through the night to
ensure she was in tiptop condition to take the deciding
race on the last day. Topaz, in her first race and
therefore still ironing out niggles and tuning up, came
in third. With the unprecedented resurgence of the
J-Class, three-boat clashes like this, once
exceptional, are becoming more common.
Velsheda and her crew must be feeling on top
of the world, having also won last
year’s Royal Yacht Squadron
Bicentenary Regatta held in
the Solent.J-CLASS, FRENCH WEST INDIESVelsheda takes it
WORD OF THE MONTH
YOKE
A transverse board fitted to the top
of a rudder in a small boat instead of
a tiller, the rudder being moved by
yoke lines attached to the ends of
the yoke and operated by the
helmsman. Yokes are mainly to be
found in small boats which are pulled
by oars; and very occasionally in
small, open sailing craft where the
position of a mizzen or jigger
mast makes the operation of a
tiller impossible.Oxford Companion to Ships
and the Sea