MOCRA National Championships 2023 at the Isle of Wight

This year's MOCRA National Championships was for the first time ever held in two locations; the first four races off Wootton supported by the Royal Victoria YC, then a passage race (via the Nab Tower) to Bembridge and the final three races off Bembridge supported by Bembridge SC. A challenging arrangement for the organisers but one that was voted a resounding success!

All bar one of the 21 boats entered spent Monday evening in Wootton enjoying the hospitality of the RVYC team. The following morning all the boats less N.R.B which had damaged her centre board the previous day and was waiting for a repair/replacement, headed out to the vicinity of Quarr for their first race of the day, a straight forward windward/leeward using Peel Wreck and Mother Bank. After a clean start, Luca Stonehouse's D-1 lead the way with Mark Upton-Brown's Alini, Nigel Talbot's Sanity and Chris Dodd's Misty in hot pursuit.

Start of Race 1 (Tuesday)

However on the second round, Alini moved into the lead and finished 30 seconds ahead of D-1. This was enough for Alini to win on corrected with Nick Wood's F27 Origami second and Sanity third. As the slowest boat in the fleet, Chris Bamber's Stampede 2 was finished after one round and their elapsed time was averaged out.

Race 2 was Special Course 1, a triangle, sausage, triangle with Peel Wreck, a laid inflatable as the wing mark and Mother Bank as the leeward mark. Two boats were called OCS and returned; and despite best efforts by Robin Russell's Grey Goose, Alini did everything right and was the comfortable leader throughout, crossing the finish line 2 minutes ahead.

Start of Race 2 (Tuesday)

However on corrected time, it turned out that this was not quite good enough and the winner, by just under a minute was Origami. Having been missed called as OCS, Sanity's finish time was adjusted slightly which saw her take third on corrected time. As always some very close racing throughout the fleet. Jason Lawrence in his mini-cat Orca joined Stampede 2 in only doing two of the three rounds with his elapsed time appropriately adjusted.

The final race of the day was meant to be a slightly longer distance one, however in the event, Alini, Grey Goose, Simon Baker in Hissy Fit and Lucy Goff's Arlette made it round Peel Wreck, Quarr, Browndown, Colette and back to a finish close to the RVYC Starting platform in under an hour! On corrected time it was another win for Alini, with Arlette snapping up second and Nigel Steven's in Triassic coming third.

Start of Race 3 (Tuesday)

Wednesday morning's racing started with another windward/leeward with Peel Wreck again as the windward mark, but with the breeze a bit more westerly, the leeward mark was Quarr. With N.R.B' centre board repaired, she was the scratch boat and as expected was always well ahead of the rest of the fleet. Alini and Grey Goose were never far apart with the later moving into second on the second round.

Start of Race 4 (Wednesday)

Race 5 was the passage race to Bembridge. After an initial beat to Peel Wreck the course then took them on a long run to Nab End and the Nab Tower with the finish originally set as Garland but subsequently changed to Under Tyne where there was more water! Keen to get on their way the first start saw a General Recall with the re-start under Flag U.

Start of Race 5 (Wednesday - General Recall)

Not surprisingly, N.R.B soon established a comfortable lead and by the time she got to the finish at Under Tyne was eleven minutes ahead of Hissy Fit who had powered through the boisterous conditions off the Nab Tower with ease. Grey Goose was a minute later a couple of minutes ahead of Alini. Special mention must be made of the two back markers. Orca and Stampede 2. Orca as the smallest boat in the fleet and Stampede 2 who was the slowest. Both were determined to complete the course and were obviously thrilled when they did. D-1 unfortunately broke a rudder on the way back from the Nab and although they were able to reach under jib and nearly made it to the finish, they ended up taking a tow into the harbour by the BSC RIB.

MOCRA National Championship 2023 at the Isle of Wight - photo © Mike Samuelson

There was a bit less breeze (and from the North North East) on Thursday morning off Bembridge for the final three races. With D-1's overnight rudder repairs not quite completed, twenty boats made there way to the start area off Tara for Race 6, another windward/leeward with Janson as the windward mark and Tara as the leeward one.

Start of Race 6 (Thursday)

N.R.B again led the way with Hissy Fit and Grey Goose vying for second, and Alini and Misty for fourth and fifth. Finishing 3 rounds in just under 40 minutes, N.R.B at last was far enough ahead to take first on corrected time, a minute or so ahead of Origami with Hissy Fit coming third.

With the breeze just about holding steady, the seventh race was another triangle, sausage, triangle. N.R.B was soon ahead, with Hissy Fit, Grey Goose, Sanity and Alini unable to do anything about it initially.

Start of Race 7 (Thursday)

However on the sausage round, Grey Goose took over the lead and Alini moved up into third. On the final triangle, N.R.B moved back into the lead and finished 3 minutes ahead of Grey Goose with Alini in third a couple of minutes later. Orca, Stampede 2 and Neil Boughton's Easy Tiger were finished after two rounds and their elapsed time appropriately adjusted.

The breeze started to go a bit 'iffy' as things were being set up for the eighth and final 'longer distance' race. However boats were moving so the race was started (without Foxy who had left early) with Warner as the windward mark. Although D-1 had been hopeful that they would be able to join in, she was not quite ready in time and it would not have been fair to the rest of the fleet to postpone for over half an hour for her to reach the start area.

Start of Race 8 (Thursday)

Although the faster boats initially managed to make steady progress towards Seaview, the slower boats struggled to make much headway. However except for Jake Jeffris in Storm who having reached Warner continued on homewards, everyone else seemed determined to finish. N.R.B again led the way and made reasonable progress to the inflatable laid off Footprint; and then half way to what became the finish line at Tara, the wind died! With the rest of fleet still short of the wing mark, N.R.B eventually wafted across the line. Within minutes a 7 knot SSE'erly began to appear off the Lifeboat Station and slowly move towards Seaview - good news for those trying to finish, but bad news because the reach/run became a beat! Alini lead the rest of the faster boats to finish 17 minutes behind N.R.B with Grey Goose and Hissy Fit coming in just over a minute later. However even that was not good enough for N.R.B to take a podium position and she had to be content with a fourth behind Origami, Triassic and Alini.

MOCRA National Championship 2023 at the Isle of Wight - photo © Mike Samuelson

Three days of excellent racing and with two discards applied, the top three places were 3rd - Hissy Fit on a count back with Sanity; 2nd Alini and 1st Origami.

Many thanks indeed to the RO team, the Mark Layers, the supporting staff from both RVYC and BSC, the sponsors (Highwater Sails, PR Systems, allspars & the MultihullCentre.com), and of course, all the competitors.

Additional photos at flic.kr/s/aHBqjAKNoZ

Overall Results:
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