| BENFLEET YACHT CLUB | |||||||||
| NORE RACE | |||||||||
| A brief history | |||||||||
| The Nore sands lie in the Thames Estuary and extend between Shoeburyness in the north and | |||||||||
| Sheerness in the south. | |||||||||
| The Nore Lightship, anchored 4 miles southeast of Shoeburyness, was the first to be established in | |||||||||
| English waters in 1732. The Nore anchorage was much used by the English fleet in the wars of the | |||||||||
| 17th and 18th centuries. In 1797, Sailors at the Nore mutinied against their conditions, and their | |||||||||
| leader, Richard Parker, was hanged from the yardarm of his ship. | |||||||||
| The Lightship is now replaced by a large navigation buoy. | |||||||||
| In the 1920's, Frank Garon, of the well known Southend based Garon business family, approached | |||||||||
| the "Interclub" Association of Southend Yacht clubs with the idea of a race round the Nore Light | |||||||||
| Vessel. | |||||||||
| Interclub were not interested, so Mr. Garon, as a member of Benfleet Yacht Club, asked BYC if | |||||||||
| they would organise it and they agreed. | |||||||||
| At first, the race was sailed annually, with the winners from each consecutive three years, racing | |||||||||
| for a large silver cup. During the war, light vessels were only put on station for conveys and then | |||||||||
| towed in again. The Nore Light Vessel was moored inside the Shoebury boom (still visible today), | |||||||||
| and was therefore left on station all the time. | |||||||||
| After the war, the race was sailed for "cash" prizes, the silver cup probably having been melted | |||||||||
| down "for the war effort"! | |||||||||
| In the 1950's, Frank Garon was intending to emigrate to Australia and so the Commodore of | |||||||||
| Benfleet Yacht Club (Will Clarke) asked him, whilst standing on the end of Southend Pier for the | |||||||||
| Nore Race, if he would donate some money to enable the race to continue. This he readily agreed | |||||||||
| to. | |||||||||
| Frank Garon died within six months of this and his ashes were scattered round the Nore. | |||||||||
| The Nore Race today | |||||||||
| The Nore Race is now one of the premier and largest yacht races in the South East of England. | |||||||||
| The race this year will take place on Sunday 22nd June. The prizes will be presented on the | |||||||||
| evening of Friday 27th June at Benfleet Yacht Club clubhouse, where a live band in a marquee will | |||||||||
| provide entertainment. | |||||||||
| The race itself is aimed to attract both a wide variety of boats and peoples interest in sailing. Past | |||||||||
| competing boats have ranged from small dinghies, such as the Mirror, up to large cruisers. Over the last | |||||||||
| few years, we had the former Americas Cup challenger "Victory", previously owned by Peter De Savory, | |||||||||
| compete in the race. In terms of peoples interest; some go out to win with a fully switched on crew, | |||||||||
| whilst others, maybe with just husband and wife on board, are content to follow the pack around | |||||||||
| in a relaxed manner. The Nore Race means different things to different people. | |||||||||
| The course is also designed to be of an optimum distance, approximately 20 miles, to consider all | |||||||||
| competing boat types. It starts from the end of Southend Pier and runs in a clockwise circle around | |||||||||
| the Thames Estuary; crossing over to the North Kent Coast and passing the wreck of the sunken | |||||||||
| 2nd World War ammunitions ship "Richard Montgomery" and the mouth of the River Medway. The | |||||||||
| course returns to Southend Pier for the finish. | |||||||||
| In the past, the Race has attracted around 300 entries, but today, numbers average around 200. For the | |||||||||
| 2003 race, the start will be split into two groups to aid comfort at this hectic moment: starting with the | |||||||||
| Cruisers (Multihull and Monohull), followed by the Dinghies (Multihull and Monohull) ten minutes later. | |||||||||