A view of the start taken through the mist by Brian Webb taken looking down the Colne with East Mersea Stone on the right.
VIEW FROM THE TOWER – 1999 SMACK and BARGE RACE
The weather forecast looked good for Saturday’s race when the Race Committee met in the Colne Yacht Club on the Friday evening; the decision being taken then to sail the full course.
The starting party met at Bateman’s Tower at 0830 and consisted of Sue Last, Tony Goldsmith and Brian Percival with Malcolm MacGregor joining us for the finish.
As we sorted ourselves out, the river was alive with movement, twenty-two smacks and twelve barges presenting a brilliant spectacle for the spectators who thronged the promenade below Bateman’s Tower and Splash Point.
A bank of haze drifted across the river just before the start, The Force 3 ENE wind dispersed this before the smack start at 0900.
The Smack Thistle F86 was sailing back in an attempt to regain the line at the gun and had a penalty of 15 minutes added to her time. First smack over the line was Martha II MN69 closely followed by several others. A point which we noticed from the Tower, just after the start, was the way in which some smacks seemed to accelerate past others, even though they were to leeward.
The smacks and bawleys made a grand sight as they sped away down Colne, the wind obviously freshening offshore.
The barges started at 0930, Wyvenhoe suffering a 15 minute penalty for being over the line at the gun. Repertor made an excellent start being first over the line.
After the Tower party had enjoyed the traditional fried breakfast they had a pleasant wait in the warm sunshine, the freshening wind blowing from the back of the Tower so that we were nicely sheltered.
Just before twelve o’clock the leading smacks were seen entering the final stretch, word having spread along the Promenade that they were returning, spectators with cameras being seen running to the finish line to secure a good shot of the finish.
Ethel Alice CK476 was the first smack home in the record time of 3hr. 29 min 42 sec beating the previous record time, set by Dick Harman in ADC in 1978, by 70 seconds.
Sunbeam CK328, Charlotte Ellen CK258 and Lizzie Annie MN23 were next home, topmasts bending like bows in the fresh breeze. Bona LO178 finished next, being the first bawley to finish.
Four barges were well up in the middle of the smack fleet, Repertor winning in 3hrs 36min 57sec, her sails drawing to perfection as she crossed the line with a bone in her teeth. Marjorie finished just under three minutes later, followed by Xylonite and Mirosa.
Officer of the Day, Ron Hall, motored across in Olan and presented the winner’s pennants which made a brave sight streaming aloft on Ethel Alice and Repertor.
At the prizegiving, held, as usual, outside the Colne Yacht Club, Jim Spencer made an excellent and at times, moving speech when he referred to the death of Chris Watsham at the tragically early age of 26, Chris having had a keen interest in the sailing and preservation of smacks and barges. Brightlingsea Town councillor and Harbour Commissioner Bill Campbell presented the prizes and thanked all the smack and barge owners and crews for providing as he put it " a splendid spectacle for the people of Brightlingsea". Ending the prizegiving on a high note, three rousing cheers were given to Terry Everett, skipper of the barge Gladys who was retiring after eighteen years at the wheel.
Let’s hope for the same weather conditions and even more competing smacks and barges for our millennium race to be held on Saturday 9th September 2000.
Brian Percival.
The chart removed
as demanded by the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office
".. a portion of Imray Chart
C1 has been reproduced. This chart is derived from Admiralty Charts and as such
is protected by Crown Copyright "
Chart of the Course.
A VIEW FROM ELLEN CK222
The 1999 Colne Match with 22 smacks (dating from 1860) on the start line. Barry Tester's Aldous built smack, Ethel Alice CK476, completed the 21 mile course in 3hr.29min42sec. beating the course record by 70 secs set by Dick Harman's ADC. CK431 (also an Aldous smack) 21 years ago. I was on Ellen CK222, a Harris smack built in 1900, and had a poor 0900 start off Bateman’s Tower, hampered by one of the 12 Thames barges jilling for their start 30 min later.
A cracking reach down the River Colne to the ENE 3-4 and the half-tide ebb with us, with owner Andy Rule hoisting more sail as we tore through the fleet with clear wind. Ethel Alice was in a brief luffing match ahead which pleased us no end, anything to slow that fast smack was good. We set the spinnaker jib on leaving Colne Point and later dropped it before rounding the Colne Bar buoy in a bunch of smacks then hardened up onto the beat to Clacton Pier. Catching three smacks ahead so put in a couple of tacks to clear our wind and later they passed behind us when they tacked.
A hazy sun with mist obscuring the shore made it difficult to judge when to tack for the unseen mark off Clacton Pier and as the tide was with us we didn’t want to overstand the mark. We tacked too early and followed the bawley Bona LO178 in to shore and had to put in two more tacks to round it. Sunbeam CK328 went very close in before tacking and it paid off allowing her to lay the mark in two tacks less than us but the spectators on the pier were holding their breath that she didn’t hit the many blocks of concrete laid there when improving the sea defences. 1300 sq.ft. of canvas thundered above us as we gybed round the mark and set a course of 220 degrees magnetic for the Wallet Spitway buoy below the horizon. Into the tide now but approaching neaps and the wind free we set the spinnaker jib again and went through another smack into sixth place and catching those ahead. Mugs of tea and coffee were consumed by the crew of ten as we bowled along when a cry of "there’s the mark off the port bow" had me puzzled; we were well off course!
We hardened up and had to drop the bag, eyes straining into the mist, to eventually find that the ‘mark’ had moved; it was a small fishing boat! Bear away onto the original course and set the balloon jib again, the error costing us distance but thankfully not a place. Wind picking up now to a good Force 4 and the ally scaffold tube used to pole out the spinnaker jib bending ominously. Down bag and jibe round the Spitway buoy, it’s bell clanging in the swell, harden in the sheets to a beam reach, two crew to each sheet, no winches here. The mainsheet is quite a pull with over 1000 sq.ft. of mainsail and topsail to get in with a 4:1 purchase. A glorious reach back to the Colne Bar in hazy but warm sunshine, the lee deck getting washed and water gurgling up the helm port; no log aboard but looks like 8 to 9 knots. Over the Knoll we go with a few feet between keel and sand and drop the spinnaker smartly at the Colne Bar buoy and harden up for the fetch up the Colne into the last of the ebb.
The Ellen really digs her rail in now and there is talk of striking the tops’l as the topmast bends like a bow. But there is Bona ahead and we must try and catch her so we crack on with Andy hauling on the tiller with gritted teeth while I ease the main a touch to keep us up. I pop down to the heads for a spell and watch water pouring in through the topsides seams which had opened up during the hot summer spell. We didn’t catch Bona and finished sixth but what a glorious sail.
Roger Walker
RESULTS
SMACKS
1. Ethel Alice CK476 .....................3hrs.29mins.42secs (course record)
2. Sunbeam CK328 .......................3.32.40
3. Charlotte Ellen CK258 ...............3.33.02
4. Lizzie Annie MN23 ....................3.35.26
5. Bona LO178 .............................3.38.21
6. Ellen CK222 .............................3.41.19
7. Martha 2 MN69 .........................3.44.09 and prize for 1st. over the line
8. Primrose CK273 .......................3.46.54
9. Peace CK171 ...........................3.47.13
10. Mermaid LN32........................ 3.48.30
11. Hyacinth CK256 ......................3.49.18
12. Phantom CK175 .....................4.03.18
13. Maria CK21 ...........................4.04.48
14. Dorothy CK159 ......................4.11.05
15. Gracie CK46 .........................4.19.24
16. Mary CK252 .........................4.24.11
17. Electron CK36...................... 4.25.17
18. Thistle F86 ...........................4.28.53 (15min penalty)
19. Gamecock F76 ....................4.33.29
20. Britannia PZ8 .......................4.34.30
21. Good Intent LO136 ...............4.34.37
BARGES
1. Repertor ..............................3.36.57
2. Marjorie ...............................3.39.43
3. Xylonite................................3.40.41
4. Mirosa ................................3.42.16
5. Gladys ...............................3.53.33
6. Portlight .............................3.55.48
7. Ironside ..............................3.56.15
8. Thistle ................................3.56.42
9. Wyvenhoe ..........................4.27.26 (15min penalty)
10. Reminder ..........................5.45.00
11. Centaur ............................5.49.00
12. Ena .................................5.50.00
10/10/99