On a sunny Friday in October, six stalwarts of Bradfield Sailing Club met at Port Solent to collect our 41 foot yacht for the Arrow Trophy, the annual regatta for Public School old girls and boys. The OB crew spanned 23 years of the College Sailing Team; from 1972, when Douglas Peniston first capsized in Theale gravel pit, through to 1995 when Archie Massey (D 90-95) won his last race there, with Richard Rowntree (F 86-91), Ollie Meats (D 86-91), Gayle Moore (I 91-93) (previously Turner) and Giles Ford-Crush (E 88-93) from the years in between. We were also joined by two non-old Bradfieldians, James Lavery and Tom Bowman to complete the team.

Much as we enjoyed having them on board, we would love to be able to field an “All Bradfield” team so if any OB reading this wants to join us next year for a weekend of competitive racing and excellent social events, please get in touch with me  at douglasjp@btinternet.com 

After an uneventful motor across to Cowes we enjoyed our traditional pre-race meal at the Cowes Tandoori and were all raring to go at the 8.00am briefing the next morning. The weather forecast was for strong winds, followed by stronger winds and rain so we were instructed to put two reefs in our mainsail and to keep our spinnaker below decks in it’s bag – a relief for the author who had paid the damage deposit.  That was the set up for the whole day.

Race One was a little chaotic as everyone discovered the vagaries of a new design of boat – probably better suited to balmy Mediterranean days than a bleak October Solent. After a conservative start in the first race the team sailed a good route to get the best of the wind and tide and had a narrow lead at the first mark which we were able to hold and extend to finish first. In the second race our start was more “conservative” – or to put it another way we were a little late to the line – but again excellent helming by Archie Massey and consistent navigation and crew work brought us up to 2nd at the first mark which position we held at the finish. With the wind increasing as forecast the Race Officer decided to call it a day and it was a wet ( and speaking personally tired) crew heading back to the crew house for tea and cakes,  but all revived in time for pre dinner gin and tonics.

The traditional Arrow Dinner was a great success with 26 schools present -  a great opportunity for reminiscences about almost quarter of a century of sailing at Bradfield and the positive impact it had on all of the OB crew.

Sunday dawned with 10- 15 knots of wind, but forecast to increase. With this in mind, the Race Officer decided to run just one further race for the whole fleet rather than have a Match Racing Series for the top four boats based on the Saturday results. The OB team were disappointed as the Arrow Trophy is one of the few opportunities we have to indulge in the dark art of match racing, where two boats race one on one – the same format as the America’s Cup, albeit in much slower boats on an infinitely smaller budget and without the fans! Nevertheless it was the right decision and the fleet set off for a final race around various fixed racing marks rather than on the simpler windward-leeward course used on Saturday, which involve just two turning marks. The racing was certainly close  with a crowded start line

We were in the lead at the 1st mark, but ended up in 3rd place having had some close racing, including having to avoid a boat as we rounded one mark despite in our view having right of way – at least we avoided any collisions. The Race was eventually finished after we had completed about two thirds of the planned course because the wind was increasing and the Race officer wanted everyone safely home.  A quick review of the finishing positions and we knew our 3rd place was enough to secure the series overall from Uppingham and Tonbridge, so it was a happy team breaking out the pork pies and heading for home, planning our visit to London to collect the Arrow Trophy (for the 5th time since we first raced in 2002) at the prizegiving.

As always the team must thank the Bradfield Society for continued financial support and also the members of staff who over the years dedicated so much time to running the sailing teams and introducing so many of us to the world of competitive sailing. Sadly in recent years we have lost two of those, David Moss-Gibbons and  Morgan Laimbeer, and the OB Arrow Team would like to dedicate this year’s win to them.

More details and photographs are available on the Arrow website here