Many Erith members are keen race compeditors and our youth sailing has produced a sailors that have gone onto success at high level sailing across the country. Erith operates organised dinghy and yacht racing and race training events and are keen to encourage visiting sailors to join in, bring their own boats or join our events as crew.
Racing is scheduled in our sailing calendar.
Race results are published after confirmation.
Our tidal location with the river back eddy also provides an opportunity to develop strategic approaches to racing success.
Race training sessions are organised on an adhoc basis as part of our sail training with member and invited racing coaches.
Our location and space at the club mean that we can accomodate a resonably large number of vistors with space on site for dinghies and plenty of mooring for visiting yachts. Overnight camping at the club can be arranged.
We welcome any interested sailors, what ever their experience level who are interested in racing to get in touch with us to discuss racing opportunities.
Race results
Cheeky Race Around the Cans
Date: 24 September 2023
Venue: Erith Yacht Club
Weather: southerly wind, gusty, sun with moments of cloud
Course: EYC start line upriver to barge at top of moorings (s); to Jenningtree (s); to barge buoy off Essex (s); leave closest barge buoy off Erith to the Club to port; to EYC finish.
Another race that had come about from another conversation. A shortish course due to the prediction of gusts of 25 knots later this afternoon. However, the wind direction (south) gave us enough challenges as it shifted about in the gusts and at the bends in the river.
Bolero took an early lead past the barge at Erith with Jana Ina following close behind. The gusts helped Bolero surge ahead and a roller genoa was used to good effect. Racing up Erith Reach with the wind veering and backing from south to southwest meant goose-winging and returning to leeward again was challenging. Hera came up rapidly on Jana Ina and eventually overtook, leaving the latter to harden up and try to get clear wind again.
Rounding Jenningtree back into the breeze for the barges off the Essex shore saw Bolero being pushed shoreward and having to put in tacks to get to the barge. Hera too slowed down pinching as she tried to reduce the number of tacks, but was overtaken by Jana Ina who took advantage of the gusts and the lifts to pinch, resulting in not having to tack to get past the barge.
Racing to the buoy off the causeway (the narrow slipway off Erith) saw the handy use of a kitchen knife on Jana Ina as a riding turn could not be sorted – and a replacement genoa sheet attached swiftly afterwards. Confusion over which buoy to go around meant two (unnamed) yachts went around the wrong one, but in the spirit of Corinthian sailing, we teased them in the bar afterwards and did not penalise them for their mistake!
The leg to the finish was a reaching race, so little to say. Bolero kept her lead to win line honours by 4 minutes. Good racing everyone and it was pretty close finishing on corrected times.
Provisional results below.
| Yacht | Skipper | PY | Lap time | Corrected time | Position | ||
| Hr | Min | Hr | Min | ||||
| Bolero | Sara Taylor | 1062 | 0 | 51 | 0 | 48 | 1 |
| Jana Ina | Peter Reeves | 1055 | 0 | 55 | 0 | 52 | 2 |
| Hera | Roger D | 1035 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 57 | 3 |
| Marlin | Nick Pikesley | 1055 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 03 | 4 |
| C’est La Vie | Don Mapp | 1070 | 1 | 22 | 1 | 17 | 5 |
Beginner’s Impromptu race
Date: 17 September 2023
Venue: Erith Yacht Club
Weather: Quick rainy squall, light easterly winds, overcast
Course: EYC start line to end mooring buoy (p); to Jenningtree (s); to barge buoy off Essex (s); leave closest barge buoy off Erith to the Club to port; to EYC finish.
This race came about from a conversation between Andrea and Jeremy a month ago with the aim of having a yacht race that new/inexperienced members could join in with for fun. Some planning and contacting cruiser owners resulted in six yachts being on the start line with 17 people racing.
A quick briefing and a chat with London VTS about shipping – one cruise ship and a warship to be expected – we were off. In fact we were met by rain, which happily disappeared when we got on the water, leaving a dry and muggy afternoon for the race.
The race was a tactical one where reading the river was important, mostly because the winds were lighter than expected. In fact both Bolero and Tigatoo shook out the reef in their mains. Short tacking down the moorings was important to keep out of the flood tide before using the tide to get up to Jenningtree. However, the light winds caused issues with white-sails downwind… the genoa collapsing, poling it out… Going up Erith Reach required good reading of the tide and eddy, ensuring the boat was on the right side of the eddy line. Tigatoo benefited from Bolero’s initial mistake and did a little catching up – only a little. Ruby skirted the line and continued to use the flood tide to their advantage.
Getting around Jennigntree was fun, trying to get across the river without tacking too soon, which Hera did and then had to tack back, loosing time. The race back down past the barges was a tricky one, as skippers/tacticians needed to decide when to get into the flood tide to get the wind – being too close inshore meant the Veola building acted as a wind shadow.
The tide by the time the first 4 yachts reached the Erith buoy was mostly slack, with a little bit of the remaining flood tide along the Essex coast. They tacked inshore and then out into the river hoping to get to the finish without the faff of tacking.
As can be seen from the results, the finishes were pretty close so well done everyone. Thank you to Mary for keeping the bar open a little longer to slake our thirst after racing. In the end we had eight inexperienced sailors onboard from 12 years old upwards.
| Yacht | Skipper | PY | Lap time | Corrected time | Position | ||
| Hr | Min | Hr | Min | ||||
| Bolero | Sara Taylor | 1062 | 1 | 14 | 1 | 9 | 1 |
| Ruby | John Edmonds | 1060 | 1 | 16 | 1 | 11 | 2 |
| Tigatoo | Andrea N-G | 1117 | 1 | 25 | 1 | 16 | 3 |
| Hera | Roger D | 1035 | 1 | 30 | 1 | 27 | 4 |
| Marlin | Nick Pikesley | 1055 | 1 | 36 | 1 | 31 | 5 |
| C’est La Vie | Don Mapp | DNF | 6 | ||||