Medway Barge Match, 1999.

Transcript of Match report by Match Commodore Tony Winter.

So, here we go again!

The forecast for today was WSW force 4 and maybe freshening a little later. In fact we had quite a lot of north in the wind, and it was an ideal day for racing on the Medway. /P>

The start was going to be interesting, the wind was down, the tide was down, and everybody was going to be a little bit on the cautious side.

In the B class, we had Centaur, Greta and Lady Daphne and the start was 9 o'clock. At the 5 minute gun, Greta was on the north shore, settting her topsail. Lady Daphne seemed to be having some difficulty with hers, but Centaur seemed determined to win her club prize, the Vic Wadhams memorial prize , for first over the starting line, and was running down to the line, far too early, far too eager, but she rounded up beautifully and headed up across towards us on the south shore and squared away again for the line, and was in fact across the line first in the B class, 30 seconds after the gun, which for today I think was a very good start, and well done Centaur! Greta crossed the line 1minute 35 seconds later.< /P>

Now Centaur was over on the south shore as I've said, and found herself getting quite close to the moorings, so she gybed over and we had this rather interesting picture of the Greta and the Centaur running off down Gillingham Reach, one on port gybe and the other on starboard gybe, but looking back to see what had happened to the Lady Daphne, she actually made a start without her topsail set in the end 3 minutes and 13 seconds after the gun, and once started, she made up for the slow start by setting her staysail boomed out to starboard in an exemplary fashion.

So there we were with the B class started and running off down Gillingham Reach.

We turned our attention to the A class, which this year consisted of the Ironsides, the Marjorie, the Repertor and the Wyvenhoe. At the 5 minute gun, the Ironsides was 4 lengths above the line. The Marjorie running down to the line, I thought she looked absolutely splendid - I've never seen the barge look as fine as she does this year, and congratulations to her owner and crew. She set her staysail just above the line, and she crossed 1 minute and 22 seconds after the gun. Quite a leisurely start you might think, until you hear about the rest of them.

The Repertor was taking life much more easily, and she came across the line 2 minutes and 34 seconds after the gun, setting her staysail below the line of course, when she felt like it, and the Wyvenhoe was 9 seconds after her. The Ironsides actually accomplished the start 3 minutes and 20 seconds after the gun. That's real laid back in my view.

Then came the Bowsprit Class, and what a picture they made this morning.

Cabby, Portlight, Thistle and the Xylonite. At the 5 minute gun, the Thistle looked as though she was going to make the start of the day, roaring down towards the line. Then the Xylonite went roaring about across the river, backwards and forwards, she sailed across the Thistle's head to the north shore, gybed over, came roaring back towards us on the south shore, across the tide, winded by No 30 buoy - a brilliant display of pre-start tactics. In fact she didn't get over the line until 53 seconds after the gun. Nonetheless, the second best start of the day. So, there was Portlight on the south shore, crossing one minute and 20 seconds after the gun, followed by Cabby and the Thistle.

Now the Thistle, if you think about it, gave the Xylonite over a minute at the start, a gesture which we thought might cost her dearly later in the day, and which probably did, but more of this in a minute.

So, down through the forts, through Pileup Reach, we had the Centaur, the Greta and the Lady Daphne in the B class, the Marjorie well ahead in Class A with Repertor and Wyvenhoe tussling for second place, and Ironsides not too far behind.

The Bowsprit Class got to the Darnet Ness at about 9:45 where Portlight drew ahead of the Xylonite, then, just past the jetty at Kingsnorth, we saw a further example of the daring nature of the Xylonite, she luffed sharply, and I mean sharply, under the stern of the Portlight and shot in under the lower end of the jetty.

There were gasps of amazement aboard the Committee Boat, we hadn't seen anything like this for a long time. Somebody said "audacious".

So, there they were, the Bowsprit Class all in a bunch, all running down together, and then we heard from the container ship Émigré's pilot through the Port Control, that he was going to take the ship off the jetty after the A Class had passed him., and we concluded that he was a very gentlemanly pilot indeed. By this time, the wind was WNW 15-18 knots, by the time we got down to the Garrison, Lady Daphne led the B Class out through the Garrison with the Centaur and Greta battling it out for second place.

In the A Class, Repertor and Wyvenhoe had a wondeful luffing match off Grain Spit. They looked as if they were going off up the Swatch to London, but in fact they managed to get back on course after a while.

Meanwhile, our gentlemanly pilot aboard the Émigré, slowed down through engine trouble, radioed thanks to the sailing barge fleet for their cooperation with him in his problem.

And so on down to the mark - the Medway Buoy.

With the wind where it was, we thought that the rounding of the point would be quite interesting. It was an hour and a half before low water, with still some tide going, obviously. Having passed to leeward of the buoy, who would chose to stand on across towards the Essex shore, and who would decide to wind round and try and get back above the buoy, over the tide and try and make the slacker water under the Cant?

We decided that we would use the outer mark as one of the places to look for our seamanship prize award, as we often do, because it was going to be quite an interesting situation. But more of that later on.

Lady Daphne was first at the mark in Staysail Class B followed by the Centaur 2 minutes later, and Greta was 2 minutes after her.

Marjorie was first at the mark in Staysail A, 9 minutes ahead of the Wyvenhoe and Repertor (and remember that, 9 minutes ahead of the Repertor at that stage), and Ironsides 5 minutes after her.

In the Bowsprit Class - Portlight first at the mark, a wonderful run down to the mark, but Xylonite was less than 1 minute behind her, followed by Thistle and Cabby.

So, there we were, round the mark, an hour before low water, wind more or less down, and how was it going to work out? - and I have to say that the best of the day was yet to come.

Some craft stood on to the north, across the tide, ebb tide still. Others winded sooner after rounding the mark.

Marjorie stood on for about a mile before winding, Repertor about half a mile. Xylonite barely passed the buoy before she tried her luck, and got away with it, and away she came to weather of the buoy. By now the wind had eased to 12-15 knots, but it was soon to freshen again, and the Bowsprit Class had to decide on the suitability of carrying two topsails to windward, in what were going to be fresher conditions. The Thistle had her decision made for her as hers carried away rather spectacularly.

So, Portlight ran her big jib topsail down at the mark, or just past the mark, and reset a smaller one. Xylonite decline to do so. As a result we thought that the Portlight made a better speed than Xylonite through the water, where her head was pushed off the wind with the extra sail set at the topmast head.

Some staysail barges set staysails to windward, some not. Greta didn't appear to set one all day (perhaps he hasn't got one!) but she did remarkably well without one.

Repertor set hers when the wind fell away, and ran it down when stronger conditions arose. In the freshening conditions it seemed to us that Thistle and Cabby in the Bowsprit Class started to look as if they were coming into their own. So, would the wind hold, or blow out, to put them into a leading position?

At this point I have to say, another disappointing event, we had our second interface of the day with the pilotage service, this time through Thames Port Control, with a complaint that sailing barges in Sea Reach had put a container ship by, and could we tell them, please, the names of the barges concerned. Now I have to say, aboard the Committee Boat, we had the greatest difficulty in identifying the barges, and that we were completely unable to help.

At the Garrison, Repertor arrived first, having stood over to the Cant and worked her way up the slack tide. You will remember the famous saying of Jimmy Didhams, who won this race more times than I can care to remember, "the tide runs up on the Cant eight months out of twelve", and I guess he was proved right again today.

You will recall that the Repertor was 9 minutes behind the Marjorie at the mark. On the turn to windward back to the Garrison, she made up 17 minutes on the Marjorie. Wyvenhoe had dropped behind and Ironsides appeared to retire after having leeboard trouble off the Cant.< /P>

In Class B, Greta had worked out a commanding lead over the Lady Daphne and Centaur, who were slugging it out off the Cant, between themselves. A wonderful battle between these two barges which lasted on and off all day, for second place in B Class, but the real battle of the day was still to come.

In the Bowsprit Class, in Saltpan Reach, Thistle overhauled Portlight and put on a tremendous burst of speed. Could she threaten the enormous lead the Xylonite had?

At the Garrison, Thistle was 6 minutes behind the Xylonite. By the time they were at Oaken Ness Jetty, she was right up under Xylonite's lee, but Xylonite covered her all the time, and wouldn't let her by. Would she be able to break free in Long Reach and snatch victory?

Portlight, as if overcome by the excitement, piled herself ashore on Bishop's Spit.

But in Long Reach the breeze started to ease a bit, and that was what the Thistle didn't need, and the Xylonite probably did need. Thistle lost her edge of speed over the Xylonite, and, indeed, at the top of Long Reach, Kingsnorth, Xylonite was able to set her jib topsail for the trip through Pileup, through the forts, to draw away convincingly from Thistle, but it was exciting stuff.

And so to the finish at Gillingham.

Repertor was first home to win Saysail A Class, with a course time of 5 hours and 47 minutes, a good achievement.

Xylonite, having sailed a magnificent race, and having held off the strong challenge from the Thistle, won the Bowsprit Class after 5 hours, 34 minutes and 5 seconds, followed by Thistle 5 minutes and 25 seconds later, so she worked out a considerable lead back over Thistle in the last half hour or so of the race.

Greta convincingly won Staysail B in 6 hours and 6 minutes.

Marjorie, looking as smart as any barge in the match, was second in Class A.

Slugging it out to the bitter end, as they had all day, there was the Lady Daphne and the Centaur, and there was only 4 minutes in it at the end, Lady Daphne taking second place after 7 hours and 16 minutes.

So what a splendid match it was in all the classes. If you enjoyed it half as much aboard the barges as we did in the Committee boat, then you had a good day!

Seamanship Prize.

As far as the seamanship prize is concerned, I'm sure you will forgive me for saying, yet again, that this is actually the most important prize of the day.

It is for the best all round performance, as far as we can see from the Committee boat. First barge or last barge or somebody coming in between - it doesn't matter where you come. In some years we may not award it at all, if we think there hasn't been anything particularly good to look at in terms of general seamanship or quality of performance.

Today we had no shortage of people/barges to put on the short-list, and if I may tell you the barges that were on the short-list, but didn't quite make it: we had Greta, Repertor and Cabby, but good though those performances were, we thought that there was absolutley no doubt that the barge that performed consistently the best through the day, sometimes with considerable aplomb, was the XYLONITE.