It was a light, fluky southerly breeze that greeted the small band of men, women and children that so bravely ventured 10 miles down the M4 to Kingsmead Sailing Club, to represent Maidenhead in the annual Iver Challenge.

Race Officer Terry Cherrill set a short start line for the first pursuit race with the beat into a narrow gap between two of the many islands on Kingsmead’s lake. It seemed an eternity before we had all got racing and with such a complex course and yes those blumin islands in the way, it was difficult to gauge who was in the lead and how we were actually doing.  Maidenhead were always going to be up against it, as it was our best six boats (we took seven) verses their best six (they had fourteen to choose from!!).

The view from the back of the fleet was that the two Johns were fighting amicably with the two best Kingsmead solos, which was a great fete as these guys are renowned on the open meeting circuit.  John Mansfield is none-the-less renowned but we believe that this is only for his drinking prowess!!

With a course that toured the entire lake, wind shadows and holes took their toll, seeming to favour the local sailors. The congestion and shifty conditions coupled with those blumin islands put an end to the charge of two of the Albacores, only after John W had effectively carved up a local laser to let Gareth and Phil through.  This was however a manoeuvre that was to come back to haunt Phil in the second race, as the laser had now seen red (well white  in this case) and proceeded to unfairly try and literally take out Phil and Roy on two occasions.

So, after we had toured those blumin islands several times it became apparent that the conditions were going to favour the smaller boats and solos took the first 3 places (John Ewebank our first boat home in third) in the first race. The Albacores were lead home by Phil, who managed to climb to seventh but this could not stop Kingsmead taking 7 of the top 10 places.

After a short break the fleet started a very congested handicap race.  The line was made at least 2 metres longer, but was never going to be long enough to cater for all the boats.  Once again the beat started through a narrow gap and yes they had thankfully changed the course, but only to take in two other blumin islands!  A clean start was essential and Gareth and Owen (through luck more than judgment) stormed off in clean air to pull out a healthily lead.  Gareth thought that this was down to skill and superior boat speed and tactics, but it was in fact due to John Woffinden playing his trump card of taking the rest of the fleet to the wrong mark.

With clean air and more of it the Albacores were now up in contention and again the Maidenhead solos were fighting with the Kingsmead rock stars.  After two laps it was looking very healthy for Maidenhead with 3 in the top 5 but then the wind dropped to nothing and the finish was just the other side of the blumin island.  With literally 3 minutes of sailing left the albacores of John and Gareth were holding 1st and 3rd only to watch the solos sail up to and pass them in the near mirror-like conditions.

Regardless of this Maidenhead had a better race with the two Johns in the top five, John W in the top ten and Kate and Mike Pearcy improving on their pursuit results.  This good showing however couldn’t stop Kingsmead from taking race two, albeit by a greatly reduced margin and recapture the trophy from Maidenhead SC.

Thank you to all those that represented Maidenhead on the day and thank you to the  Kingsmead sailing committee for putting on two good races in challenging conditions.  Next year I think that with a little more wind and a few less blumin islands we will give Kingsmead a run for their money. 

Gareth Edwards

Overall Results: 

Maidenhead Results: