James Minter (1983-88) writes:

The sun is shining across the Solent, a brisk Force 4 breeze is blowing across from the Isle of Wight and we are punching into the tide leading 7 other yachts across the start line.  There is one boat ahead of us, but it has to tack away.   For the first time all day we are in the lead.   As that last boat drops into our dirty wind, for some reason, the whole crew is asking at the top of their voices whether those feet in ancient times, walked upon England’s mountains green?  All very Pangbourne…

There are many different types of OP sailor.  The most impressive one currently is called Ian Williams, and he played a very important part in Sir Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup team.  He is the most successful match racer of his generation.  At the more sedate end of the spectrum, we have those lucky enough to have their own boat or be part of a regular crew.  Only a month ago there was an OPYC rally at Bembridge where 5 boats and 17 OPs gathered for a weekend of sailing and yarning.  After a few years in charge, I have decided that the OPYC Arrow Trophy boat sits somewhere in between the two.  Arrow Trophy is a yacht race for public school old boys using the SunSail and Fairview fleets.  It is a perfect weekend for someone who does not race their own boat.  It is an accessible opportunity for adventure on and off the water and a chance to gently rib some of the more entitled schools which take part.

Like any good team, this year’s crew had a variety of complementary strengths to cope with the myriad different tasks over the weekend.  Rohan Batra and Ed Nation handled provisions and slops as well as mastering the dark art of asymmetrical spinnaker management.  Tom Bendall, fresh from sailing a Wayfarer dinghy to Lundy brought important supplies of wine and was ship’s photographer.  Larry Howard was Chief Morale Officer – managing to put some serious effort into amusing the participants of the off-season nightlife of Cowes.  Larry is unfortunately engaged but luckily his understudy Ed Nash seems to be picking up the baton.  To provide some actual sailing nous we had a new member of the crew, Charlie Allen who as a Harbinger lad had learnt his trade on long passages in the Outer Hebrides with Sparky back in the day.  Finally, and most importantly for me, Adam Kelvey who actually knew how to race.  He sailed for Oxford University – an astonishing academic achievement compared to my days at Pangbourne.  Adam was team tactician and sometime winch man when Larry needed a rest on Sunday after his strenuous socialising duties.

The crew gathered on Thursday evening to be ready for a day of training on Friday.  We sailed from the Hamble and had a wonderful day learning the ropes, making crisp tacks and figuring out the complicated dance of hoisting, gybing and dropping the spinnaker.  The wind dropped mid-afternoon, and we motored into Cowes to our berth at the Royal Yacht Squadron.  Here we were joined by the very important Support Rally – Jeremy Owen our esteemed Commodore and Mrs Commodore Katie on Dolce Vita; Master Mariner Robin Batt and Ian Williams (father of the OPYC rather than a match racer) on Slipperway and Andy Roy and family crew on his Swan 46, Troubadour.  Other OPs present were James Maitland our host at RYS and Peter Kewish who was on his third and final year of running the Arrow Trophy event.

Friday night saw all of us together for dinner and the following morning off for racing – some having had a good night’s sleep and some with some good stories.  A generally sunny, force 4 from the south and spring tides gave us great conditions for racing.  I suppose the brief overview of our results is that we improved significantly as the day went on.  Bad skippering (me) meant that we had dodgy starts on the first 2 races but by race 3 we were getting better and then race 4 started with the singing and by the first mark we were probably about 20 lengths ahead.  We have been in this position before but this time we were still in first place when we crossed the finishing line – cue for more religious singing.   Dinner on Saturday night was organised by Peter Kewish for all 17 crews at RORC – a fabulous recently upgraded club – and by now the Chief Morale Officer was trying to encourage all 200 diners to join his choir.  The Support Rally had a much classier affair with an amazing dinner at the Squadron where I think they challenged Larry on the number of hours after midnight that were taken up with spinning ditties.

Sunday saw 2 more races – round the cans this time rather than a windward/leeward laid course.  We had a fabulous start on the first race and came 2nd after being overtaken halfway through the course by a very fast Shrewsbury.  Attempting another amazing start on the second race was not so successful but we clawed back from last over the start line to a very creditable 4th at the finish to give us an overall third place for the weekend’s campaign behind Shrewsbury and Bryanston.

My penultimate paragraph has to be dedicated to Peter Kewish.  There is a well-known saying in the services – never volunteer for anything…. Peter ignored this and volunteered himself (and Pangbourne College) to run The Arrow Trophy Committee (with Jeremy Owen as Chairman) for the last three years.  Despite some seemingly overwhelming obstacles, he has managed not only to run the racing and dinner as if nothing was falling apart behind the scenes, but he has actually incorporated a number of very noticeable improvements leaving the organisation in a much better situation than when he found it.  I am not sure why he wanted to do this, but he has made a huge success of it and deserves recognition!

Finally, I would like to say thank you to my comprehensively talented crew.  They did not stint whether they were hoisting spinnakers or downing pints.  They represented a huge range of Pangbourne’s eras and yet clearly had more in common than they realised.  My only regret is that, despite some effort, we have an all-male crew – so ladies please come and join us if you would like a weekend of adventure in October next year.

Boring addendum for sailors who are interested in the finer details…

Conditions day one – the wind was on the limits for no reefs to start with (approx. 15-18 kts) and by race 3 had built up to one reef and no spinnakers.  The tide was running strongly E for the first two races and W for the last 2. 

We were racing just to the NE of Brambles.

Race 1

The favoured first tack was on port both because this was into the tide and therefore lifted but also because this was closer to Brambles bank.  We should have had a good start but at the last minute I thought I had more time to manoeuvre, and we ended up getting stuck a couple of boat lengths down wind of the start line.

Race 2

An OK start before I decided to tack onto the favoured port tack despite the 3 boats that were inevitably going to call starboard on us.  Round we went putting us at the back, but we did well to claw back a few positions.

Race 3

A good clean start at the front of the fleet on starboard tack.  We were doing well at the windward mark and in fact were at the front of the fleet for the whole race until on the last downwind leg a gybe went wrong, and we lost 2-3 places.

Race 4

By this time the tide had really turned to a westerly set, and we had noticed in the race before that boats coming into the top mark on port were going much faster than everyone else stemming the tide on starboard.  We had a rubbish score so far and it was worth going all out for some lucky leverage.  I decided we would eschew the ‘obvious’ advantages of going out to the right of the course and hoping for less tide over Brambles bank and instead go all the way out to the left for a one tack and in.  No-one else came with us on that first leg and we were 15-20 boat lengths ahead of the rest of the fleet around the windward mark.  I am still not sure why we did so well, but we only did one tack, we must have been slightly lee-bowed with the tidal stream giving us a lift and maybe there was a wind-bend?  Next lap some boats did come our way, but we easily won the race.

Day 2

Lighter winds from the SE.

Race 5

The first leg of this race was across the main shipping lane by Osbourne Bay with the tide crossing from right to left so it seemed obvious that port tack would be the best choice off the start line.  And the pin end flag was upwind of the committee boat.  Everyone else was way away at the committee boat end – surely the perfect conditions for a pin end start.  There was some nervousness from the crew, but we hit the pin end on port tack, with timing perfect to the second (there was no-one else to worry about!) and at full speed.  Executing a pin end port tack start and then crossing ahead of the whole fleet is just one of the most exhilarating moments in racing - especially when the hungover crew are getting a bit nervous and then one by one you cross ahead and sail off into clear air.  Being the lead boat comes with the cost of then knowing exactly where you are going and there was a little bit of confusion about a mark which cost us some of our lead.  By the third mark we were overtaken by Shrewsbury who just clearly had much better boat speed than us, but we sailed well and held second place.

Race 6

Encouraged by the thrill of a pin end port tack start, I tried it again on the next race which was obviously a huge error.  This time a couple of boats were clearly aiming to start in the middle of the line instead of at the committee boat and one was cosying up to the pin itself.  I thought there may have been a gap, but discretion was the better part of valour and we ducked the whole fleet on port and effectively started last.  After this poor start, we sailed really well and overtook boat after boat with some very tight sailing.  Right up until the end we held off a boat that sat on our wind as we spinnakered our way to the finish line and we crossed in 4th place.

All in all – it had been a great series of races.  My starts in the first two races were inexcusably bad but we had done well in the last 3 races.  Tacks were almost always excellent; spinnaker handling was good apart from one bad gybe (maybe we should try sheets through the forestay next year?) and our tactics were sound and at some times excellent.  Many of the other crews were way more experienced than us and coupled with the handicap of our best sailors being suborned for the America’s Cup I think we can be proud of our efforts.