THE 2008 East Anglian Offshore Racing Association season had a somewhat eventful start due to a sunken vessel some 500 metres from the published start line. Following plenty of warnings from the organising authorities and the race office however, all yachts passed the danger unscathed.
With 12-14kts of breeze the longer (55 mile) course was set and all three classes started cleanly with kites aloft for the Pattinson Cup from Burnham to Mersea. Sadly Ian Hart's Ace of Hearts had to retire shortly after the start with broken spinnaker gear.
The remainder of the fleet made rapid progress around the course with Paul Wood, Michael Wood and Ian Magee's Ker 11.3 Skipjack first home at 1440 and all but two yachts finished by 1520. On corrected time, Bob Fawkes' Carter 37 Tigo IV had won class 3 and overall, with Heartbeat III and Titian winning classes 1 and 2 respectively.
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A beautifully sunny but chilly morning awaited the fleet for the Ralph Herring return to Burnham. On the back of a lighter forecast the race committee opted for the shorter course. With 8-10 knots of breeze for the spinnaker leg up the Wallet however, all boats managed to beat the tidal gate.
The sunny weather was not to last as the sky turned black to precede a squall of hail stones. Behind the squall there was very little wind but after 30 minutes or so 10-12knots returned to help boats up the Crouch.
Skipjack led Judy & Jason Payne-James' Dufour 44 Heartbeat III and Stan Fenton's J122 Jedi Knight on the beat up the river. Skipjack went aground however and the time take to sail off allowed Heartbeat III to finish first at 15.11followed by Jedi Knight and Skipjack 6 minutes later. Once the results were calculated, Tigo IV capped off a superb weekend by winning her class and overall once again. Consistency was also the name of the game in the other classes with Heartbeat III and Titian winners again.
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