The Solo Class End of Season Championship 2024
It was a relief to be released from the seemingly infinite production of apple donuts, the bright red numerals on the face of my digital alarm clock burning the numbers four, four and five into the very backs of my retinae. I usually start work at 3 a.m. on a Saturday so the lie-in was very welcome. I eased my body into the reassuringly soft inner texture of my Aqua Marine salopettes, the breathable fabric and perfectly contoured panels would easily handle the four hour trip and time saved now would present an opportunity for the consumption of a bacon and sausage bap. Draycote Water Sailing Club is run professionally and the catering is exceptional.
I entered the club’s postcode into my Samsung S5 map app and awaited the ETA and navigation info, the five minute wait allowing my Volvo V70 ample time to do it’s on-board flight checks before we set off for Warwickshire.
This event would be the last in a very long season and the lower attendance I would say is a direct result of the compressed calendar rather than a forecast of light winds. On the plus side, falling just two days after Halloween, my car was packed with sweets, I promised my wife that I would wash the eggs off the front door on my return.
The 200 mile journey gave me plenty of time to mull over Solo related topics, how to increase participation and ultimately larger turnouts at our three biggest events of the year taking up at least 30 minutes of my commute before I came up with an idea. Now, I have never been short of these but 99% are rightly classified as folly so I put that one in my brain’s storage facility and unwrapped a Drumstick.
The night sky receded leaving a slab of concrete grey, pockets of mist sticking to the lower levels of the Somerset landscape and the trees that lined the M5, still fully canvassed, stood lifeless. The forecast had suggested a light 5-9 knots and fortunately, on arrival, the reservoir surface, other than a slither to leeward of the dam wall vindicated the weather apps prediction.
The boat park was as busy as an F1 paddock as participants unwrapped their state of art racing machines, meanwhile, near the water’s edge sat a racing green Winder. To be honest I assumed it had been adapted as a prop for the Halloween festivities but owner Jeremy Atkins proudly confirmed that the spider webs were actually real. I noted that this hull was the 200th built by Dave and the team and despite the horror show of cosmetic gelcoat chips and smears, it remains structurally perfect.
PRO Matt Rowley delivered a short concise briefing, with the forecast indicating a reduction in wind strength as the day progressed, a windward/leeward course and immediate use of the U flag would be implemented.
Race 1
Pre launch interviews and deck cam instillations complete, I shuffled to the pontoon, the narrow unstable platform providing me with an experience which would prepare me for Squid Games should I ever be invited. Once safely aboard the Safety/Media rib, and only after rib driver Rob had delivered his highly impressive powerboat safety talk did we ‘power on’ to the race arena. I un-sheathed my excited Nikon P950, the new lens unit extending slightly, only when it processed the bleak conditions did it recede back into its housing. Today would not be a money shot sort of day.
Into sequence and with a generously long line, the fleet of 30 Solos spread down it, albeit with a good percentage close to the Committee boat. Jonny Coate shuts the door on Chris Bunn and looks like he has won the right side with Atkins on his transom and Davenport to leeward while Chris Mayhew has started down towards the pin with Phil Sturmer and Class President Guy Mayger.
Half way up the first beat and Coate and Davenport are bows forward in the middle of the course while Paul Davis and Charlie Nunn are behind but to windward as the breeze holds at 5 knots.
The top mark is not far from the shadow of the clubhouse, Davenport and Coate, both in Winders, finding the right shifts to round with a healthy lead while behind, the wind shifts further left, suffocating those who were on the right hand lay line. Davis in the Boatyard at Beer Solo and Nunn in the GOAT Solo are next around with Mike Dray squeezing in behind Shustoke’s Harry Marlow and Steve Ede. The fleet choose left or right as they head downwind, the leaders though are far enough ahead to take a more direct route, leaning their Solos over to windward and sitting well forward to minimise hull displacement. Coate takes the lead and rounds the right hand gate while Davenport, taking a leaf from the AC 37 book of tactics splits to provide some separation. Dray, who sunk deep has had a blinder and rounds third from Davis and Nunn with Marlow, Bunn and Barnham keeping them honest. Coate extends up the second beat, footing off to the left of the coarse while the muscle density Davenport utilises in stronger winds is useless in sub 5 knots, instead he searches for height.
Top mark and Coate is clear from Davenport but behind, Andy Carter has shown some impressive speed, rounding ahead of Davis and Barnham with Dray, Ede and Nunn your top eight.
We motored down to the finish line and awaited the leaders who, incidentally were both chosen as deck cam jockeys along with Nigel Davies, well, two out of three is not bad.
The finishing order e chopped the top mark roundings and I instructed my driver to pull along side to Coate for his victorious interview. WhatsApp followers and half of Ireland would be pouring pints of Guiness and breaking loaves of Soda bread in celebration.
It was then a bit embarrassing to find that the top three finishers were in fact UFD. Later investigations and confirmation on the black board revealed that there were eight casualties, Davenport admitting that it was either pull the trigger with the others or get relegated to the second row. Therefore, it was a slightly surprised Paul Davis that took the bullet from Dray and Ede, the Lymington based sailor who is north of 90kg doing exceptionally well against sailors a good deal lighter. What a great design the Jack Holt built Solo is.
The PRO was keen to get race 2 underway but the mark laying team towards the top end of the course relaid the info that the breeze was down to under 4 knots, smoke rising almost vertically from behind the clubhouse confirming their observations while I wondered for a moment if my car was ok. A solitary 470 with support rib sat idle near the dam wall, that is the sort of dedication Olympians have to commit to, I wonder if it was Tom and Rachael?
Twenty minutes passed before the mixed two person dinghy accelerated forward, too far away to hear the Dacron crack but breeze on! A hint of burning leaves confirmed the wind was heading this way and also that my V70 was still operational so I cracked open a Mars bar and readied my Samsung for Race 2.
Race 2
The breeze is barely that, 3-4 knots and sailors heel their Solos to leeward to fill sails before bringing them up level on the gun, Davis, Davenport, Brown and Andy Bownes choosing the Committee end but Nunn is shut out and has to bail out. The left of the course holds the best of the breeze while the right has gone light, leaving Davenport almost becalmed. Fortunately the breeze returns and he rounds first from Chris Bunn who had a tardy start but went the right way second with Ede, Sturmer and Bownes completing the top five. Mayger would round in eleventh, Carter 12 with race 1 winner Davis 15th.
Davenport extended down the fickle run to the gate, the fleet spreading across the reservoir like they had been fired from a Blunderbuss. You know it is light when sailors venture forward of the thwart to hold the boom out, a feat of extreme athleticism I stopped doing two decades ago.
Top mark second lap and with the breeze holding across the course but fluctuating in strength, there was still plenty of opportunity to progress forward. Davenport has a 30 second lead from Mayger who has turned on the Nitrous with Ede in third. Carter must have followed Mayger and he is fourth from Richard Instone as they edge towards the finish line.
Davenport crosses the line, his face expressing some nervousness but this turns to a smile with the sound of the gun echoing across the water. Mayger, Ede, Carter and a fast finishing Andrew Wilde in the Demo Solo complete the top five.
So, with one race to go and the breeze indicating it would happen, the fleet lined up with Ede leading with a solid 3-3 from Mayger 10-2 and Davis 1-12 while Davenport has a bullet and his discard.
My driver had been instructed to collect hot food and drink from the pontoon so gunned the bright orange rotomoulded rib up to the top of the reservoir but only after first warning me, he goes top of my Christmas list.
Race 3
Davis is closest to the Committee boat with Coate and Jonathan Swain making life uncomfortable just to leeward and Davenport is below them, possibly keen to ensure he is not visible to the PRO. Nunn is down at the pin end, numbers that far away are now illegible but the duck egg blue hull stands out like a Cuckoo in a nest of Starlings, not sure if that is a good thing though? I also just about make out the varnished Sapele veneer of Mayhew’s John Poulson built hull, circa 2009 and he looks bow forward on the right hand starters.
Top mark and it is a PRO’s wet dream, Bunn leads in from the right with Barnham right on his transom who came from the left. Local Robin Warren is next from Mayhew with Russell Short and Davis completing the top six. Davenport in 12th has work to do as does Mayger in14th.
The wind is lighter now and the sailors are being tested both physically and mentally, I would have gone mental two races earlier but the fleet are made of stern stuff and at the bottom gate Bunn still leads from Barnham with Warren, Swain and Coate taking the left gate and Mayhew and Mayger opting for the right gate. This tactic clearly paid and by the top of lap two, Chris Mayhew, former Optimist National Champion, albeit thirty five years ago took the lead and held for the win from Mayger and Barnham with Bunn and Short completing the top five.
So, after numbers were crunched our 2024 EOS Champion would be Solo Class President Guy Mayger 2-2 with Steve Ede second 3-3 and Chris Mayhew third 6-1. Race one and two winners Davis and Davenport carried a heavy second race score to finish outside the top five which is unusual but sums up the difficulty of the conditions.
Guy thanked the race team for some impeccable management and the shore side team for their excellent catering.
This event also served as the final event in the North Sails Super Series which was successfully defended by Oliver Davenport with Steve Ede and Guy Mayger completing the podium.
There were twenty qualifiers and the draw for a huge discount voucher on a new North sail was won by a delighted Andy Carter.
Many thanks to all our sponsors this year, we will expand on all the Area Series winners in the forthcoming SoloSpecific online mag which will be out soon.
Will Loy.
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