The Royal Harwich Yacht Club hosted the Ajax National
Championships for 2024, with boats based at Shotley Marina for easy access to
the race area in Dovercourt Bay. Originally produced
in 1967 by Oliver Lee, the Ajax is a one design 23ft open keel boat sailed with
a crew of 3. The majority of boats produced are sailed out of either the Royal Harwich Yacht Club in Suffolk or St Mawes Sailing Club in Cornwall and the National
Championships alternate between the venues each year. There were no visitors
from the St Mawes fleet this year, but this did not
deter 11 boats in competing for the Gimpel Trophy.
Notable additions to the Nationals this year were the return of Mars for the
first time in 7 years, now with class stalwart Chris Brown in the middle and
Mark Blackwell helming, as well as the immaculately turned out Indefatigable
under the new ownership of Derek Mayhew with son Chris at the helm.
Day 1 saw a F3/4 Westerly, with 30 degree shifts either
side of the mean to keep the fleet and Race Officer Tom Dixon on their toes all
day. Race 1 was set as a 2 lap windward / leeward on a relatively short course
to get a race in the bag. With a heavy pin bias on the start line, a short beat
and a windward mark offset slightly to the north, Thunderer
(John Williams) took the opportunity to cross the fleet on port to lead around
the first lap, chased hard by Orwell VI (Richard Merriweather) and
Indefatigable (Chris Mayhew). Orwell VI escaped the clutches of Indefatigable
and tacked early out of the final leeward mark to split from Thunderer. 2 crossed tacks later, superior boat handling
and an immaculate lay line call for the favoured end secured Orwell VI the
first win by less than a boat length.
The course was extended for Race 2. A right hand shift in
the last 30 seconds pushed the fleet up to the line early and a resulting
General Recall. Tom wasted no time in bringing out the black flag for the
restart. Dionysius (Phil Mayhew) tacked out early to pick up a right hand shift
to lead the fleet at the first cross. Orwell VI held the left and tacked inside
Dionysius at the first mark. A square run split the fleet, with little place
changing at the front. Not for the last time in the event Orwell VI put the
hammer down and sailed away to a comfortable win. Dionysius replicated Orwell's
move from the first race to squeeze past Thunderer on
the final cross to take second.
The forecasted drop in breeze never materialised for the
final race and the fleet was sent out on another extended course, this time
sailing sausage / triangle. Plenty of the fleet were pushed out beyond the port
layline of the first beat, with some resulting polite
discussion at the first windward mark. Goosander showed upwind pace that became
a welcomed theme of the weekend to lead ahead of Indefatigable and Orwell VI.
Confident gybes on the shifts heading down the run were enough to make a place
or two, but as much as picking the right shifts on the next beat, something
Storm Petrel (Jackie McKellar) made the most of on the left hand side up to the
second windward mark. Those who hoisted early to carry spinnakers on the first
reach gained on those who opted to sail high and hoist late with a right hand
shift on the leg helping the lower tracks back up to the gybe mark. With a
flooding tide the second reach was much deeper and compressed the fleet back up
again. Orwell VI held their lead for a third consecutive win, ahead of Storm
Petrel and Indefatigable.
Class captain Jackie McKellar hosted the fleet in the
evening to a brilliant wine tasting (through the expertise of her crew Justin Waples) and summer meal.
Day 2 began with an 30 minute
postponement to wait for the breeze to fill in. Fortunatley
a sea breeze from the south arrived early in some glorious sunshine. To avoid
the annual Pin Mill Barge Match course using a rounding mark in the bay, the
first race was again a relatively short 2 lap windward / leeward course. A
committee boat bias and the knowledge that a good start was key
resulted in another general recall and the reintroduction of Tom's black flag
for the second attempt. Storm Petrel found a gap at the boat end on the restart
with pace to lead the fleet up the first beat while Orwell VI recovered from a
slow start on the right hand side. Plenty of the fleet under-stood the windward
mark layline, with a good number of tacks in
relatively quick succession seen in the approach to the mark. Indefatigable led
around the first lap, as ever being chased by Orwell VI. A windward/leeward
incident down the run resulted in a trip to the protest room after racing for
the leading 2 boats and the resulting race win going to Indefatigable, ahead of
Telamon (Gordon Sutton) and Storm Petrel.
The leading boats started 1/3 down the line for Race 5,
allowing Goosander and Storm Petrel space at the boat to lead the fleet away on
a sausage / triangle course, but with the leeward end moved further in to the
Harwich shore for a longer race. Storm Petrel held the lead until the very
last, only to also feel the pain of being pipped at the post by a fast chasing
Orwell VI.
The course was extended again for Race 6, with the black
flag still in play. This time Thunderer won the biased
boat end, hitting the line at speed to lead half of the fleet away to the left
hand side. With a big split across the course a single shift could have opened
up big gaps at the first mark. As it happened the shift never came and all
converged together relatively closely, with Thunderer
leading Dionysius with Orwell VI tacking inside Mars at the first mark and
taking a spin for the infringement. Indefatigable made good gains on the left
hand side of the second beat to follow Thunderer to
second place at the finish.
The traditional class dinner was held in the clubhouse at
the Royal Harwich that evening, with some exceptional food provided by the new
club caterers.
The breeze for day 3 returned to the WNW, this time an
overcast F3 with some punchy gusts. Generally the breeze would flick right in
the puffs, but spotting the return to the mean in the lulls could gain places
upwind. Orwell VI led the fleet from the leeward end of the line in R7 around a
windward / leeward course, hitting the seemingly favoured top left corner of
the beat. Those with a poor start were punished hard with the right hand side
not returning any favours. The leeward mark was positioned close to the start /
finish line, so place changing was frequent in the attempt to tack in to clear
air for this short leg. Orwell VI stretched away to win comfortably and put one
hand on the title, with Indefatigable all but confirming second place in the
series.
The final race was a last sausage / triangle course on a
similar axis and wind strength to race 7. Orwell VI once again led the leeward
end of the line out to the left with Mars closely following. Indefatigable was
squeezed out at the committee boat and forced right out to clear air. With an
offset course an early gybe was required with windward drops on port to prepare
for the triangle on the following lap. Orwell VI struggled to hold their deep
cut spinnaker on the bottom reach out of the gybe mark, causing most others to
drop and 2 sail reach. With hindsight this was a poor decision across the
board, with Dionysius not dropping and gaining a comfortable gap in second
ahead of Mars.
Orwell VI showed superior boat speed and handling almost
all weekend and were able to lead from the front or recover from poor starts
seemingly with ease to win the Gimpel Trophy.
Congratulations to Richard Merriweather, Josh Richardson and Mark Ingram.
Indefatigable was an extremely popular second place in the hands of Derek and
Chris Mayhew, with Roland Smith at the bow, winning the Du Sautay
Tray. Thunderer won the Mike Rowe Memorial Trophy in
third ahead of the Victory Plate for Storm Petrel in fourth.
Huge thanks must go to Jackie McKellar for her
organisation both on and off the water alongside Rear Commodore Sailing Steph
Hensley. As ever, the fleet are extremely grateful to Race Officer Tom Dixon
for putting together an extremely efficient series of 8 championship races and
the use of his own boat as the committee vessel. Our thanks
also to the mark layers and committee boat helpers across all three days.
The National Championships return to St Mawes Sailing
Club for the 2025 event.