2007

Introduction

I suppose that this year’s Three Rivers Race tale begins (at least for me) with my departure from Swan on the Friday morning to start preparing the boat, but there is a prologue as well.

Last year I had the opportunity (thanks to contacts made on The Norfolk Broads Forum) to join forum member Barnacle Bill for the Three Rivers Race on his River Cruiser “Wandering Rose” A scratch crew and last minute preparations meant that we didn’t do well, but at least we finished. Having also enjoyed joining BB and co for the Yare Navigation Race, I was looking forward to this year’s race. However an email from BB told me that Rose would not be in the water, so he was planning to hire. Was I still up for it? Of course I was! No matter that the boat in question was Javelin 3 from Martham, a slow and unsophisticated beast. At least we’d be racing.

For a variety of reasons, nobody else from last year’s crew was available, but a newcomer to the forum, Rads, volunteered his services and the fourth crew member came in the form of BB’s teenage son, Ryan. A smaller crew than last year, but a Javelin is a smaller and simpler boat.

Preparation

So how do you prepare a hire boat for the race? Well in our case, BB and I arrived at Martham with a box full of tools, cordage, blocks, shackles etc. These went aboard the boat, whilst the awning, awning spreaders, forward bunk cushion, fore hatch, bedding and anything else we could manhandle was piled in to my car. This done we set off to sail for Horning.

The objective during the sail was to see what we could do to improve the boat, so the shrouds were adjusted and new jib sheet fairleads constructed. We also concluded that the cabin doors got in the way. They would come off at Horning. Anything that was loose but didn’t need to be undone was done up with gaffer tape.

The first obstacle was the Potter bridges. Despite only two of us and an unfamiliar boat we opted to shoot them. Good practice for tomorrow and it’s easy enough with a Bermudan rig. I was a bit cautious, getting the rig down early, but better safe than sorry. With the experience it’s now possible to cut it finer in the race. Through the new bridge with no problem and quanting on to the old. It looked a bit tight with 5’6” on the gauge. Certainly the counterweight wouldn’t go, but if we lifted the mast a bit and then lowered it once the weight was through, maybe we’d make it. All was in vain though, as the tabernacle wouldn’t quite go, and we had to adjourn to the pub until the tide dropped.

Two pints later and 5’8” on the gauge. No problem this time so it was up with the rig and carry on sailing, continuing to make adjustments as we went. The sailing was straightforward but with the light wind progress was slow. Things would be a rush when we arrived.

Approaching the waterworks, we spotted Lord Paul moored up, so we diverted for a quick chat. He’d already staked out his position for photographing all the boats next morning.

With the time passing we also opted for the engine over the final stretch. The elderly Stuart Turner started, ran for a few minutes and then died. Thereafter it would start and idle, but would not run under load. We ended up quanting up the Street.

Safely moored up at the sailing club, BB went home to search out some bits to make a whisker pole, whilst I stayed on board and rigged guys for the said pole and did other odd jobs, until it was time to go in search of food.

As I was wandering up the village, debating whether to go for the New Inn or the Swan, the phone rang. Rads had arrived. We agreed to meet outside the Swan, so that’s where we ate. Also there were the crew who would be racing Camellia, so the inevitable banter ensued. We had an excellent mixed grill before heading up to BB’s to sort a few more bits out. We ended up heading back through Horning, sometime after 11, with a quant pole slung over our shoulders. (BB’s one from Wandering Rose being rather better than the Martham supplied one). By now, of course, the pubs were shut, but no matter, I had a bottle of Glenlivit on board. By the time we went to sleep it was nearer half a bottle!

Next morning was all go. Breakfast first, but the Swan was shut. (Strange, as they’d been doing a roaring breakfast trade last year). So it was up to the New Inn for an excellent cooked breakfast, once more finding ourselves in the company of Camellia’s crew. Apart from an excellent “full English”, the highlight of breakfast was seeing the previous hirers turn up with Camellia, and the inevitable ribbing “You’ll never have her ready in time”. Later, at the Skipper’s briefing I asked Sally (Camellia’s skipper) “Have you got a boat yet?” She just glared at me. Anyway, it must have been OK, as we saw them several times during the race.

BB had returned with the whisker pole. We lashed a mount to the mast (no drilling allowed) and soon everything was configured and we were off to the start.

The Race

So to the race. Rather than a blow by blow account, I’ll keep it to a few incidents.

The start – well’ we missed it! Another river cruiser, moored outside us had left a fender attached to our boat. We sailed off after them, but by the time we caught up, handed it over with a rugby pass and turned round, we weren’t going to get to the start in time. We did have the pleasure though of seeing another yacht lose a man overboard. (Don’t tell the BA, they’ll call it a drowning near miss!). In the end we were 8 minutes late over the line.

Apart from the slow progress, the highlight of the early stages was some close tacking with America, where we consistently outperformed the larger and faster yacht. Very satisfying.

Ludham was straightforward, but in the light airs we gave some thought to changing our plan and leaving South Walsham for the way back. In the end we stuck with South Walsham, and in doing so lost touch with the other Martham Boats, Javelin 2 and Jade, that had been keeping us close company. Leander was still nearby.

By now we were beginning to get hungry, and another feature of the race was the wonderful catering, courtesy of Mrs BB. We certainly wouldn’t go hungry.

Approaching Acle we were passed by Moonshadow. Understandable with her +3 handicap, but she is a beautiful and impressive sight. Acle Bridge was a highlight. We shot it in fine style, without even dropping the main. In doing so we gained quite a bit on the nearby boats. But this was with the last of the tide, and by Stokesby, in the minimal wind and flooding tide we ended up going backwards as we tried to tack. So a couple of hours of sitting it out until the tide turned before we could make the lower mark. Coming back up the wind was a bit better and we continued to make progress against the tide. Acle Bridge this time was less good. The rig came down fine, just as planned, but paddling/quanting through was almost impossible against the tide. Moored up to hoist the mast, with the time now at 9am and Hickling still to do, we decided to retire. That was our race over for the year.

Aftermath

The situation now was much relieved by the crew of Leander, who had also retired and were moored just behind us. They had run out of water, whereas we had water but nothing else for brewing. A quick deal was made. We filled the kettles and they made us tea. Then it was off back to Martham to return the boat. Everything got sorted and we were ready to leave. Just a word with the yard staff.

“We’re off now Terry, but we’ll be back. We need to return the rest of your boat!”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the quant pole and cabin doors are still in Horning!”

© Robin Sermon, June 2007