Page 18 - Folk Boat Year Book 2022

water is something to behold and we had to crash dip when they grounded
immediately in front of us.

One last obstacle lay between us and the finish: Castle Point. This ‘Piccadilly Circus’
arises because of large yachts pinching to get across to the South finish line, whilst we
are trying to hold our ‘well judged’ port tack layline to the North finish. Inevitably the
bigger traffic won the day and forced us to take additional tacks out in adverse tide,
costing valuable time.
That finish hooter, after 8 hours and 35 minutes, had never sounded sweeter. We had
needed every minute of the lead that the harbour master had gifted to us over
Mistral at the start.

Written by Simon Flack
Photo Credit: David Harding Sailing Scenes

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