Cruiser Racing

Cruiser Racing, that great oxymoron. Surely you either go cruising or you go racing. Not so. Have you ever been sailing down the river or estuary, when you see another boat in front and start tweaking the sails to see if you can catch up? If so then you could well have the racing bug. It just needs developing.

How do I start racing?

If you want to dip your toe into racing then try the Montgomery Cruise in company which is definitely not a race. The next step would be the Medway Challenge as part of the Keelboat Regatta. Both are aimed squarely at cruisers who just use their white sails. No spinnakers or fancy brown or black sails unless you have an old gaffer! This would be a great introduction to Class 3, our “White Sails” class using the RYA’s NHC personal handicap system

What is the next step?

You might find the downwind legs a bit slow under just white sails, so you want the extra excitement of using a cruising chute or even a spinnaker to speed things up. This in turn leads to needing extra crew to handle the extra sails and you might even want to practice a bit. This would mean you move up to class 2, still using NHC.

Where does it end?

When the bug really bites and you get yourself a racing boat with fancy sails and a large crew to match you won’t like the personal handicap system so you fill in the forms and send a chunk of cash to the RORC and you have an IRC rating. You are now a bone fide racer and will be in class 1 using the IRC rating system.

Do I need a large crew?

It very much depends on how seriously you want to race. For white sails racing many people compete effectively with only 2 people on board. As you get more serious you need more and more people. The club has a Crew Finder Service on this web site that can help put you in contact with potential crew.

For more information email the Cruiser Racing Class Captain

Racing Season

Our racing season is from April to November and includes:

• Spring Series – short series with committee boat starts
• During the summer months we have a series of one day ‘Trophy Races’
• For the less serious we have the annual Montgomery Race usually held in mid summer involving a simple course from the club to the infamous wreck of the SS Richard Montgomery and back to the club. Hitting the mark is not recommended. Results are worked out using the Class Captain’s secret formula.
• Name of the River Challenge. This is less of a race, more of a pilotage exercise. You leave the Club Line to start whenever you like and have to pass named buoys on the river in any order, returning to the club to finish. Time your start to make the best use of the tide for your boat but you have to make sure there is enough water round all the buoys for your boat.
• Medway Keel boat Regatta. 3 days of intense racing in conjunction with the one designs with committee boat starts and finishes 
• Autumn Series – short series with committee boat starts.
  We end the year with this ever popular series – the biggest and best series on the East Coast in our opinion!
• Wednesday Evening Series.
  During the long summer evenings we hold an informal “Allcomers” race series staring at 19:00 every Wednesday. A great excuse for a light hearted race to wind down after work followed by a meal and a drink in the clubhouse.
• Full details of the race program can be downloaded from the documents in the class information section of this page.