Just add water

Just add water! The East Coast is home to a number of fiercely-competitive and fun events each year...

Founded in 2002 and now firmly established in the UK classic yachting calendar as the largest event of its kind on the east coast, the Suffolk Yacht Harbour Classic Regatta is scheduled to take place from 12–14 June. This year’s regatta will include an additional race on the Friday evening and, for the first time, classic displacement motor yachts are invited to attend.

The event is open to everyone from keen racers to social sailors who wish to compete in the fast, slow and Stella classes. Friday’s race is an optional, informal addition to the weekend and will take place in the River Orwell. This race will have separate prizes to the overall regatta and is followed by a three-race series on the Saturday and Sunday in Dovercourt Bay, Harwich Harbour, and the Orwell and Stour estuaries. On-the-water action is complemented by socialising in the on-site Haven Ports Yacht Club lightship, with a regatta party and live band on Saturday evening.

Entry criteria for the regatta requires yachts to be either pre-1970 design of traditional construction, Bermuda or gaff rigged and built of wood or steel. Modern classic yachts with wooden or steel hulls are also welcome. •www.syhclassicregatta.co.uk

Wroxham Week N orfolk Broads Yacht Club has suspended its racing programme until at least 30 April, but so far Wroxham Week is still on the wcalendar. Due to take place from 26 July–2 August, the regatta is open to all single and double-handed dinghies. •www.nbyc.co.uk

Medway Yacht Club hosts the Medway Regatta, which usually takes place over the last of the May Bank Holiday weekends. With a racing area that includes the reaches and creeks of the River Medway and the Thames Estuary, this open event is always popular – please check the website for confirmation of this year’s dates. •www.medwayyachtclub. com

Finesse owners and crews hope to hold their ninth annual class rally at Burnham Yacht Harbour on 24-26 July this year. This popular get-together has been held at locations including Chatham, Bradwell and Brightlingsea in the past, and usually features up to 35 of the East Coast’s clinker classics. Mark Milsom is the man with all the info on this year’s plans... email him at markmilsom911@btinternet.com.

Nore Race

Acombined open cruiser and dinghy race held each year over a 20-mile circuit of the Thames Estuary, The Nore Race starts and finishes at Southend Pier. Benfleet Yacht Club has organised the event since the 1930s – it’s likely to have taken a break during the war years – and for many skippers and crew, it is the only race that they will compete in. Entries usually number around 140 vessels, and include all classes of sailing dinghies and cruising yachts, both multi- and monohull. This year’s event is due to take place on 28 June, and there’ll be split start times for the dinghy and cruiser classes. Southend on Sea High Water on race morning is at 06:28 (5.4m); once they’ve completed the circuit, competitors often anchor in The Ray and enjoy the Ray Sands before returning home on the tide – this year evening High Water will be 18:49 BST (5.2m).

29 Coastal Guide 2020 The entry fee for the Nore Race is £20 for all classes and includes a free race pennant and entry to a prizegiving event on 3 July for all entrants, crew, family and friends.

Dinghy sailors travelling to take part in the Nore Race are welcome to use the launching facilities at Benfleet Yacht Club, but as that’s a long way from the start line, special arrangements are in place with both Thorpe Bay Yacht Club and Alexandra Yacht Club to allow dinghies travelling from outside the area to use their club and launching facilities. Both clubs offer good access to the water and are not too far from the start and finish areas. •www.benfleetyachtclub.org

Mersea Week T he sheltered waters of the River Blackwater provide a fitting setting for the ‘family and friends-oriented’ Mersea Week, due to be held on 16–21 August this year. Organised by a committee of volunteers from the Dabchicks Sailing Club and the West Mersea Yacht Club – which means that competitors are welcome to use the facilities of both throughout the week – this event is one of the Essex island’s premier fixtures. The Mersea Town Regatta is scheduled for 22 August. •www.merseaweek.org

Open to fast dinghies, small open keelboats and catamarans, the East Coast Piers Race is a charity event that raises funds to support The Cirdan Trust, which works to benefit socially and physically disadvantaged children.

Based at Marconi Sailing Club on the River Blackwater in Essex, the race is due to take place this year on 28 June and goes up the East Coast to Walton and back again. Three course options are available: the Bradwell Race is 13 miles long and open to boats 1046PY and below; the Colne Point Race is 27 miles long and open to boats 980PY and below; and the full ECPR is 48 miles long and open to catamarans only. Motor boats anchor at every mile and a number of support boats spread out along the course to assist if required. •www.eastcoastpiersrace.com

Benfleet Yacht Club’s Coastal Rowers are an active group of rowing enthusiasts. The club has a number and variety of fixed and sliding seat coastal rowing craft available for all members to use, and many of its rowing members compete in major events in other parts of the UK and on the near continent.

Keeping the action close to home, however, Benfleet Yacht Club organises the annual Round Canvey Race, a rowing, row/sail or paddle event that covers a 14.5 mile circuit of the entire coast of Canvey Island.

This annual open event was established in 2010 and an eclectic mix of vessels have competed to date: fixed seat and sliding seat row boats, surf skis, kayaks, outrigger canoes and a variety of sailing dinghies. The current time record is 1 hour 44 minutes – an average speed of 7.2 knots – and boats from as far away as Whitby have travelled to compete.

Sponsored by Canvey Island’s Windjammer

public house, this year’s Round Canvey Race is due to take place on 4 July and entry is £8 per crew member. The course includes four tidal barrages, there are bridges to pass under – so masts will come down – and all craft must be suitable for deep water and potentially rough conditions. Free overnight camping is available at Benfleet Yacht Club, which is on the northern shore of Canvey Island. •www.benfleetyachtclub.org

Maldon Town Regatta has been held for many generations and in its present form since 2002. This year’s event is scheduled to take place on 19 September and the full programme is due to be published in June. •www.maldonregatta.co.uk

Burnham Week

The region’s ‘most challenging and friendly’ regatta, Burnham Week attracts a full range of sailors including national champions and beginners with cruisers, one designs, multihulls and dinghies. The sheltered waters of the Rivers Crouch and Roach and all-tide access to the Thames Estuary are the setting for a variety of courses and there’s plenty of action off the water too. This year’s event is from 29 August5 September •www.burnhamweek.com

The prestigious Thames Trafalgar Race, hosted jointly by Little Ship Club and Erith Yacht Club, is a two-stage race that gives sailors an opportunity to tackle the fickle tides and winds of the River Thames. Day one’s competition starts from Blackwall Reach near Greenwich and finishies at Erith Yacht Club, and is followed by a dinner which pays respect to Horatio Lord Nelson and the Battle

of Trafalgar. Stage two sees the race return upriver to Greenwich the next day. This event is scheduled to take placeon 26-27 September and entry is limited to 40 boats. The race is open to any yacht with a Byron handicap system – if you don’t already have one, email the organisers and they will let you know how to apply. •www.littleshipclub.co.uk

IOS Round the Island Race

33 Coastal Guide 2020 T he East Coast’s own Round the Island Race is due to take place on 5–6 September when the Isle of Sheppey Sailing Club hosts its endurance event – at 40 miles it’s the UK’s longest annual dinghy, catamaran and board race and not to be confused with other ‘24-hour’ races which allow for a change of helm and crew. Sailed clockwise around the island, the race was established in 1959 and starts and finishes at Sheerness. It includes tidal sea, river and estuary sailing – larger dinghies and multihulls have to be stopped, heeled over and walked under the inner span of the lifting road bridge at Kingsferry. The race is open to all classes of dinghy, catamaran and sailboard, and any vessel that does not have an RYA Portsmouth Yardstick number should make contact with the IOS Sailing Club before the event. Typical passage times are between three and 10 hours and current course records are 1 hour 52 minutes for multihulls, 2 hours 17 minutes for monohulls and 2 hours 34 minutes for sailboards. •www.iossc.org.uk

It’s the 60th anniversary of what is known as ‘Europe’s toughest inland sailing race’. The course of this Horning Sailing Club event covers over 50 miles and three different rivers – the Bure, Ant and Thurne – and sees competitors having to lower masts to navigate three bridges at Potter Heigham and Acle. Each has up to 24 hours to complete the course – here’s hoping the racing takes place as scheduled on 30–31 May! •www.3rr.uk

North West Norfolk Week

Offering close racing at a different location every day, this family-friendly event is due to take place 18 August. Organised by all the clubs in the area, a near-unique feature is the variety of sailing on offer: Hunstanston and Snettisham Beach SCs are in the Wash and offer large open sea courses, while The Ouse Amateur Sailing Club offers tidal river racing and the largest coastal salt marshes in the world stretch between Brancaser Staithe and Blakeney. Daily and weekly trophies mean there’s something for all and the facilities offered by host clubs are as varied as the sailing itself. •www.norfolkweek.co.uk

Brightlingsea harbour and waterfront are the setting for a host of activities on 4–5 July. Brightlingsea Sailing Club and Colne Yacht Club will be offering newcomers the chance to try sailing, and the town’s Coastal Rowing Club and University Community Sailing Club will be providing gig rowing opportunities too. A St Helena Hospice Craft Your Raft Race is open to teams for more on-the-water fun. • www.brightlingsearegatta.com

North Sea Race H osted by the Royal Harwich Yacht Club, the North Sea Race starts outside Harwich and typically meanders around the Galloper wind farm before heading north to Smith’s Knoll Buoy and across the North Sea to a finish at the Scheveningen Yacht Club. This 180-plus mile race is scheduled for 22 May and forms the second part of the North Sea Regatta, book-ended by the Vuurschepenrace feeder race, which starts on Tuesday 19 May from Scheveningen to Harwich, and an inshore race series in Scheveningen afterwards. •www.rorc.org

Visiting Burnham Yacht Harbour? Please call our Harbourmaster on 01621 786832 or call up on VHF Channel 80 for visitor berth allocation.

- 350 fully serviced berths - Safe and secure moorings - 24 hour tidal access - Restaurant, bar and conference room - Chandlery - Heated workshop - Shipw - Shipwrights, engineers and outfitters - Yacht brokerage - Refurbished shower and toilet block - Free Wifi - Direct rail links to London

For a full list of incentives and deals please visit our website www.burnhamyachtharbour.co.uk or call 01621 782150 email: admin@burnhamyachtharbour.co.uk

Girl power!

Action-woman Dawn Wood spends much of her life on the water, but she’s really putting her back into her latest offshore adventures

Oceans are generally something crossed as swiftly as possible via airplane or, perhaps, more leisurely on board a luxury cruise liner. But for Burnham seafarer Dawn Wood, the journey is just as important as the destination – and an opportunity spread an important environmental message en route.

Dawn is a commercially-endorsed Yachtmaster instructor and the principal of her own sea school. When not teaching first aid, sea survival, VHF radio procedures and other maritime skills, she’s a full-time skipper with the Essex Police Marine Section, which patrols the coastline from the Dartford River crossing to Mistley on the River Stour on board its fast RIB and larger vessel Alert IV. A former hockey and rugby player – she has represented the Police in both – and a keen diver, Dawn tried rowing for the first time in 2014 when invited to take part in an East Coast Harkers Yard gig race for Burnham-on-Crouch Coastal Rowing Club. “I’m pretty sure we came last, but I was hooked!” she says.

It was at this club that Dawn met its President, Charlie Pitcher, the founder of ocean rowing specialist Rannoch Adventure and holder of several ocean rowing records. Aware of Dawn’s experience on the water and new-found enthusiasm for rowing, he asked her to help with an exciting new project – one that involved three years of training and ending with 10 students taking part in a 300-mile ocean row into Hong Kong.

In January 2018 Dawn witnessed four of her students in team ‘Kung Fu Cha Cha’ cross the Atlantic Ocean, gaining several world records in the process. “I was incredibly proud of them,” she says, “but realised that I could not tell people I’d helped to train them and not actually do it myself. I knew then that I was going to row an ocean; I just did not know when, how, or who with.”

Fast-forward to a Rannoch Adventure ocean rowing open day in April 2018, and Dawn met »

Kiko Matthews who had just become the fastest female to row the Atlantic, solo and unsupported. “I listened to her speak and the things she was saying basically blew my arguments as to why I hadn’t committed to do it,” Dawn says. And so the Row Aurora Solo Atlantic Challenge was launched, with a start date of January 2019 in mind!

The following months were a whirlwind of activity, and expense. Dawn’s Rannoch-built ocean rowing boat True Blue cost £46,000 and she had shipping, equipment, food, flights, medical equipment and training to fund too – plus some world record ambitions and a commitment to raise money for the Marine Conservation Society. Husband Jaime contributed £6,000 on behalf of his business, Station Automotive in Burnham, and a £30,000 bank loan plugged the funding gap until sponsors came on board. Creating a website, producing brochures and launching the ‘250 club’ – where people could pay to have their name on the boat – was all completed while Dawn

The name ‘Aurora’ comes from the Latin word, meaning ‘Dawn’, so it was an easy choice of name for Dawn’s challenge and sailing school. “It symbolises a new beginning, which is a powerful way to start each day!” she says.

Photo: Beccy Plummer

set about training for her Atlantic Crossing… all while continuing to work full-time and talk to local schools and groups about her campaign against single-use plastics.

Just after Christmas 2018 Dawn flew to Gran Canaria to be reunited with True Blue, which had been shipped out earlier. The boat was launched for Dawn’s first outing on Atlantic waters on 30 December, and after a few days of weatherwatching, problem-solving, maintenance and repair, True Blue slipped her lines on 5 January 2019.

Dawn’s Atlantic challenge is charted in her book, Row Aurora, which includes the blogs she wrote while at on the water. Sealife encounters, severe headwinds, solar power worries and a debilitating migraine are all described, along with the routine of rowing for 12-plus hours a day, the importance of messages from home and the joy of fresh fruit and beer gifted by a passing yacht crew. You can buy the book on Amazon and via Dawn’s website… suffice to say she arrived in Barbados after rowing 3225 nautical miles singlehandedly across the Atlantic, a journey of 51 days 17 hours and 15 minutes that raised £20,000 for the Marine Conservation Society. “The whole thing

still feels a bit surreal,” she says. “I often do talks about my adventure, and sometimes have to pinch myself to be sure it was me that did it.

“I am mostly proud of myself for having the courage to actually get up and make it happen. Though I have been involved in training in the ocean rowing industry over the past six years and have had a secret desire to do it myself for a long time, I kept coming up with excuses as to why it was not the right time, or reasons I could not do it. Then one day I just asked myself ‘what are you waiting for?’ I was the only one putting up a barrier.”

The story could end there… but it doesn’t. Dawn is now training for another, rather different challenge: in August this year, she and husband Jaime (above) will be rowing in the Arctic Circle.

“The plan is to leave from Tromsø in Norway to the farthest point north we can get before hitting the ice shelf. We will then row down into Longyearbyen in Svalbard where our expedition will finish,” she explains.

Although it will be August the couple will face freezing conditions, but they’re aiming for a number of world records, including being the first mixed crew to row on the Arctic Open Water, the first related pair (husband and wife) to row on the Arctic Open Water, the northernmost (recorded) latitude a female started an ocean row, and the oldest (recorded) team to row above the Arctic Circle – their average age will be 43 years and 197 days at the start of the row.

“Although this is another rowing challenge the dangers are very different,” Dawn explains. “In the Atlantic I had the danger of extreme heat, heat stroke and sunburn. This time the issues will be extreme cold and frostbite. And as we get closer to

39 Coastal Guide 2020 land there is also the danger of polar bears – they can swim much faster than our rowing boat will travel, so as a precaution we will be staying far from land as we can for as long as possible.”

There’ll also be, for Dawn, a distinct difference in no longer being alone on the water. “There are some huge advantages of doing a row as a double rather than solo,” she says. “For example, it’s always easier to solve issues as a pair; two heads are better than one. It also means the boat should never be left to drift as there will always be someone rowing. And in tough conditions we can row two-up.

“The downside is that it’s a very small space for two people to live in for what could be a month. When tired, wet, cold and hungry we will certainly find out a bit more about each other’s patience levels!” • You can support Dawn and Jaime’s Arctic row via the website www.rowaurora.co.uk – a donation of £7 will buy them a meal, £25 will feed one of them for a day and £50 will feed both for a day. Donations of £250 will feed the couple for five days and get your name or logo on the boat. »

Dawn has been an RYA instructor for the past 16 years and in 2018 she set up Aurora Sea School to offer bespoke training for future ocean rowers. “What better way to do your mandatory RYA courses than with someone who has rowed an ocean themselves?” she says. “At the moment our Ocean Rowing courses are the most popular. This involves a five-day training package including basic navigation, first aid, sea survival and VHF radio.” The course also includes guest speakers and lessons on specific ocean rowing topics.

“One of the things I love about ocean rowing is that anyone can take part,” says Dawn. “The sport has broken down so many barriers: men and women in their 60s, amputees and, most recently, a lady from team ‘Oarsome Foresome’ became the first profoundly deaf person to row an ocean. “Rowing an ocean is not an easy challenge, it takes hard work, dedication and the ability to overcome adversity. But humans are a lot more resilient than you think when pushed to limits.

Dawn’s Atlantic adventure aimed to convey an important environmental message. “Being on the water almost every day of my life means I have witnessed so much of the pollution and rubbish we throw into our waters, and seen the damage it causes,” she explains. “Every day I am out on the water I recover rubbish such as balloons, plastic bottles food containers and much more.”

Volunteer work for a marine mammal rescue charity and an international exchange dealing with marine pollution from commercial shipping opened Dawn’s eyes even more to the problem. “I realised I could use the Atlantic row to raise awareness about the problem and encourage others to reduce their single-use plastic consumption. At one point

“For people living on the UK East Coast, ocean rowing is literally on our doorstep. Rannoch Adventure based in Burnham-on-Crouch produces the most popular design of rowing boat in the world. The majority of ocean rowing boats you see today were built here in Burnham. Rannoch not only builds the boats, it offers help and support along the way and can provide all the equipment needed for your adventure.

“Ocean rowing is not a cheap sport – most people budget £100,000 for their whole campaign and this includes the boat purchase, shipping, food, communications, equipment, training and event registration. However, if you have a good story and message behind you, you can get sponsorship to cover your costs. It’s a really tough job, but if you are passionate about your expedition you will find a way to make it happen.”

on that crossing I was closer to the satellites in space than the nearest land, and a plastic bottle floated past. It’s just heartbreaking. In the last 12 months I have given about 40 talks in schools, youth and adult groups and organisations across the region to raise awareness about this issue. If I can convince everyone to make a small change, together this will make a massive difference.” • Learn more about the UK’s leading marine conservation charity at www.mcsuk.org

The Swallowtail Restaurant and Bar is situated in Burnham Yacht Harbour and with its full height sliding doors has stunning views of the marina and River Crouch. The large open balcony has an amazing new canopy which means you can enjoy alfresco dining no matter the weather.

We are open 7 days a week. We welcome visiting groups, functions and families and our friendly staff will make it their aim to give you a truly memorable experience. Please call us on 01621 785505 or visit our website: www.swallowtailrestaurant.co.uk Foundry Lane, Burnham on Crouch, CM0 8BL

Harry King & Sons Ltd

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HARRY KING & SONS LTD Pin Mill, Ipswich, Suffolk IP9 1JN. T 01473 780258 M 07714 260568 or 07867 640650 E info@kingsboatyard.co.uk W www.kingsboatyard.co.uk