Mersea Week 2025
by Julian Lord 18 Aug 04:59 NZST
10-15 August 2025
The Dinghy Fleet - 51st Mersea Week © Chrissie Westgate
Running from 10th until 15th August, this was the 51st annual Mersea Week and was blessed with superb sunny weather and good breezes until the final day, when the wind shut off completely all morning and with an early cutoff time, this forced the cancellation of the final day's racing.
The small organising committee under the leadership of Fran French began planning in January and worked hard to deliver a successful event, which this year attracted an excellent total entry of 125 boats, ranging from IRC rated race boats, Smacks, Locally Handicapped and White Sail yachts, Sonata ODs, Classic Yachts and Gaffers, MFOBs (Mersea Fisherman's Open Boats) and four classes of dinghy.
Overall sponsorship from Marinestore Chandlery and Adnams Brewery, day sponsorship from Mersea Homes, Dolphin Sails, Oakheart, City & Country and Fenn Wright, and additional sponsorship from Allen, West Property Management, Fiducia Wealth Management, Loftzone Storefloor, One Sails, Fox's Yacht Sales and the White Hart Inn again enabled entry fees to be kept very low. With free moorings for visiting yachts and racing on the superb waters of the Blackwater estuary, what's not to like about Mersea Week?!
A good entry of 13 Smacks made their usual spectacular sight, with visitor Dan Tester from Kent with CK469 Yet a clear Overall and Fast group winner with three race wins, whilst Reuben Frost's CK213 Boadicea dominating the Slow group, also with three firsts. Last year's top Smack MN69 Martha (Phil Plumtree) took second in the fast group on tie break from CK52 Kate (Richard Haynes), whilst in the slow group, Nick Purdie's CK46 Gracie took second, also on tie break, from Russell Clarke's MN52 Skylark.
The IRC class saw the Clifton family's Archambault 30 Aztec coming out on top, ahead of the only other race winner, Ed Harrison's Corby 29 Entropy from Royal Harwich YC. Toby Ramsay's self-designed and built Ramsay 6.7 Mojito took third. The thirteen strong Local Handicap cruiser entry was split into two groups, with Mike Banks Hustler 32 Tramp a clear winner in the A Group with three race wins, ahead of Max Davenport's Beneteau First 30JK Marionette and James Sparks Cork 1720 Mexican Train. The B Group was dominated by Stuart Howell's Dehler 29 Dynamic from Harwich Town SC, with Richard Holroyd and James Sanderson's MGC27 Tearaway taking second on tie break from Ben Simpson's beautiful Tofinou 8 Three Little Birds.
With no visitors this year, the Sonata class was only five strong but still enjoyed some good one design racing. Steve Phillips Obsession was another class winner scoring three race wins, with the all-girl jointly owned Wet Endeavour in second, ahead of Parody (Tim Crossley). The biggest range of entries in a single class was in the Classics & Gaffers fleet, going from Dino Heeps little Cornish Shrimper 19 Lapwing to Kismet, Richard Matthews Fife Gaff Cutter, LOA 48ft! In the A Group, Kismet regularly sailed off into the distance and won the class with a perfect score. The other eight boats in the group had some good close competition, with the three Nordic Folkboats being raced hard and taking the next three places, Julian Lord and Mike Allpress' Gremlin, Strider (Robin Dutton) and West Mersea YC's Commodore John Munns with Pip placing second, third and fourth respectively. The small B Group was dominated by Nancy Harrisson's gaff cutter Nesta, ahead of Joe Kershaw's little Buchanan Patica and Lahloo, Richard Bailey's Cornish Crabber 26.
The 15 strong White Sail class had a single start but were divided into two groups for prizes. Sigma 33s were to the fore, with Jack Trollope's Starfall II and Philip Woods Jazz placing first and third in the Fast and Overall results, split by Rob Smith's Beneteau Oceanis 323 Tamarisk. Winning the Slow group was the Sadler 32 Clackwise of ex-Fireball World Champion (a very long time ago!) Jack Davis. Next up were Bob Mercer's Hustler 25.5 UFO and Alan Mason and Shirley Swann's Sigma 292 Dura.
The 40 strong dinghy entry was divided into four classes - Slow, Medium, Fast and Performance and over seven races enjoyed some close competition. In the Slow class, ILCA4s took the top two positions, with the second tie break needed to give the win to Libbie Watkins ahead of Sam Cook. The Mirror dinghy of Sam Caslin, sailing with his little daughter Helena perhaps embodied the spirit of Mersea Week and took third place, ahead of Mersea Week Treasurer Rosie Brown's Comet Duo. The Medium dinghy class was won by the GP14 of Oscar Coates and George Rogers, just ahead of regular Mersea Week competitors Brian and Linda Cummings with their Enterprise. Two singlehanders were next up, with Bryan Sargeant's ILCA6 and David Royce's Solo in third and fourth. The Fast dinghies saw a close tussle between two Wayfarers, Tim Wood and Conor Redfern taking the top slot by a single point from Brian Lamb and Paul Berry. Will Powell's RS300 and Jon and Eliza Gay's Laser 3000 finished third and fourth. Six of the nine Performance dinghies were RS700s, and two of these came out on top, Jack Grogan winning from Will Head. Recently back from the 29er Europeans, Scarlett MacLennan and Joel Simpson were in third, with Ollie Gozzett in another RS700 placing fourth.
Finally, to the Mersea Fisherman's Open Boats, which this year had an entry of 21 boats of varying sizes and speeds. Whilst all starting together, they were divided into two groups for prizes. Over the seven race series, there were six different individual race winners, but consistency paid, with Alan Jones Eden the Overall and Slow winner counting all seconds and thirds. First in the Fast group and second overall was Prince (Kyan Jowers), followed by Mark Farthing's Lilian and Zak Clarke with Gipsy. Second and third in the Slow group were Ally Lump (William Baker) and Robert Crossley's Joy.
The best performance trophies for Cruisers and Dinghies were awarded to Mike Banks with Tramp and the GP14 of Oscar Coates and George Rogers, who also received vouchers to use at the White Hart Inn.
The dates for next year's Mersea Week have already been set: 9th - 14th August 2026.