Sailed for the first time in December 2017 on the anniversary of the passing of former Commodore Chris Grant, the memorial race has become a feature for those who knew and appreciated a much loved Commodore and those who have embraced the tradition of wearing Hawaiian shirts on the day of the race.

The tradition of crews wearing colourful Hawaiian shirt, arose when Chris visited Hawaii and returned with shirts for his crew of Pandora. Sandy Grant, daughters Amanda, Donna and Emma together with son-in-law Steve and grandchildren were on hand to present pennants to the placegetters and trophy to the winners in each division. As for best dressed “Hawaiian Shirt” in choosing Tim Tucker’s shirt the family said it was because of the blue background (Chris loved the ocean) and a striking pattern of many types of beer (another love).

They say “the cream rises to the top” and with a 10-knot westerly and a course that provided variation of all angles of sailing, it was the experienced skippers and crews who came up trumps.

The conditions were ideal for Ian Holder’s Whiting 32 “Bad Habits”, and after getting away cleanly at the start on a beat to windward, he was never challenged to record a first and fastest in division one. Mulberry (Mark Pitt) sailed well with their big white spinnaker but couldn’t match Bad Habits to finish second with Sophia (Bruce Utting) in third place.

The flyer in division two was Blue Chip (Deborah and Keith Fisk) with a big win on handicap despite finishing two minutes behind Covert Operation (Bart Brouwer) on elapsed time who were on the podium at last, in second place ahead of Farrouk (Des and Gail Riley). Chris Grant would have liked the fact that Blue Chip is a Viking yacht like his beloved Pandora.

John Akers and his boat Lamotrek are back racing, albeit in division three, celebrating with a win ahead of the quickest on elapsed time, Whispering Jack (Bruce Bradford), and Hard Evidence (Peter Hibberd) who was third on both handicap and elapsed times. Approaching the start line together, Whispering Jack was a boat length ahead of Lamotrek. The advantage proved costly when WJ crossed early and had to return and re-start, but did it took 2.39, the difference between first and second.

Thanks to Rob James for his plentiful photos from the start tower. These and others will appear on the keel cloud.

John Bird