The annual race from Scarborough to Ijmuiden, pronounced Ijjee- moodenn, well it is if you’re Lee Scaife! is one of the highlights of our racing calendar, with Skippers and crews looking forward to it all year?  For the life of me I can’t think why.  I have long held the opinion, (since my first crossing in 84), that the North Sea race should take part on the overnight ferry from Hull to Rotterdam, and the ‘race’ bit should involve a scalextric, (Google it) and copious amounts of ale!  How anyone can derive pleasure from spending anything up to 60 hrs, (it’s been known to be more), on such an inhospitable, bleak, lumpy, grey cold and monotonous stretch of water, is beyond me.

The Vernon Dawson race 2011 or When Bucko nearly found Nemo, (the Disney character, not the J80 owned by Mike Turner that has a dispensation from the European parliament in Brussels which means they don’t have to comply with port starboard collision regulations, you’ve been warned).

Apologies for this report being some 3 weeks late, but now the headaches have gone and the nightmares are diminishing, its time to put pen to paper.

The Vernon Dawson, a Whitby Yacht Club race is held annually, and is exclusively open to yachts from Scarborough and Whitby clubs.  Well that’s what the race instructions said, however, if you’re from Bridlington you can enter if you pay a tenner, not many people know that.

The course is from Scarborough to Whitby, and historically with the prevailing SW winds, (well they were before global warming), it has usually meant the slower boats with a higher handicap had a chance of finishing with a good result.  A fact not missed by the only Brid boat to part with a tenner, last year’s winner, Contessa Juliette.  Another Brid boat, Starchick, previous SYC regatta winner had sneaked in under the radar, and was now a fully fledged member of Scarborough YC and with a pontoon berth to boot, how did that happen? (And when’s he going to get a proper handicap?)

For those that don’t know, Starchick is Starlight 30, like Starry Night, only it isn’t.

At last, winter is behind us. I hope.  It certainly looked that way as 17 skippers and crews prepared to do battle for the Crystal Bowl Trophy - The first race of the summer calendar.  For the first time, since the last time, we were preparing the boat dressed in t shirts.  Unbelievable after what seemed to me the longest winter ever.  Ok, I know Brian Sizer can talk with relish, and knowledge about the winter of 1947 being the worst ever, but I didn’t like the one we just had.

Race officer today, was crew from Zephyr, the catamaran.  He was feeling much safer in the race hut, than he ever did on the boat.  And I can understand why, to my knowledge the race hut has never capsized, or crashed into another boat.  He was assisted in his task, by Hon Handicapper, Rich Craven, fresh out of hiding after issuing these years’ new handicaps.  This year there were a few winners who gained a more favourable handicap, and a few losers, who took the news very badly, didn’t they Kelly?

The breeze ranged from light to non existent, so the race officers signalled a postponement.

Course L was displayed and the countdown started at 1.50.  As this was a free for all, I mean a mass start; the starting area was quite congested, no one wanting to get too far away in case the breeze dropped and they couldn’t get back.  Ramsey Mac in Ruffian stalked the line, like a great white, (Google it) in a tuna pen, seemingly intent on running down anything smaller that got in his way.  (I wonder if he was bullied as a child).  As it was a mass start, team Shameless were in amongst them, giving me the welcome chance for a few observations. When its class starts where off into the wild blue without a clue whats going on behind.

For reasons we shall go into later, there were no results for this Sundays race, however, there was plenty of racing on the Saturday…

Dave Clark, a sailing instructor, (doing well for himself now he’d split from the other 4, if your not into sixties music that will have gone right over your head, Google him) had come along on Saturday to give on water training to the sports boats crews.  Crews from 6 boats attended the briefing in the Sunrise café.  It was to be an over tide event, and as I needed to be back early afternoon, I crewed on Sin Bin, with Rich Craven on the helm, and retiring Commodore Steve, and Fred, from Ruffian.