CLACTON Sailing Club held their Butlins Cup race.

Rob Mitchell and new crew Mark Butcher were clear winners of this long-distance race, in their Dart 16 catamaran.

Race officer Martin Chivers set the course to a buoy at Clacton Pier and then back out to the seaward buoy at Holland-on-Sea.

A sausage leg before the finish was designed to challenge the fleet.

Light to moderate onshore southerly winds and a strongly ebbing tide allowed the boats to edge up to the start line, giving a lovely spectacle of the catamarans crossing in tight formation.

It was good to see Stelios Tabis, with regular crew Jeff Parrmay, skipper his Nacra 20 across the line for a perfect start ahead of the chasing boats and act as trailblazer for the entire race.

In the closing seconds, Mitchell had left just enough space from the ODM to allow Pete Boxer and Eilish Dempsey, in their Dart 18, to drop in from windward and edge past into second.

Rob and Cathy Mitchell have proven themselves as serious contenders this season with impeccable start-line judgement and also hit the line as the gun sounded.

Sailing close-hauled on port, it looked like it would be possible to make the Pier on a ‘fetch’ without needing to tack.

Crews carefully adjusted the set of the sails and gently trimmed the cats down by the head to increase the waterline length.

The helms maintained the optimum course steering, using feedback from the sail ‘tell-tales’.

Dan Brzezinski teamed up with cadet Gleb Petrovski on his Dart 18.

Although starting slightly late, he had positioned his boat closer inshore where the effect of the current would be less.

He gently sailed past the Dart 16s and steadily clawed back distance on the other 18.

Brian Allen teamed up with Mike Rolfe for the first time in his Dart 16X and sailed the upwind leg, confident they would enjoy the benefit of flying the kite on the return leg.

Tacking at the pier buoy, the boats had to re-orientate themselves for the return leg.

Sailing back with the tide and free of the wind, the lead boats paid less attention to the exact course but allowed their cats to make the most of slight swell.

Allen even hoisted his kite, but soon realised the wind had backed to the east and, with the next buoy set out to sea, the leg actually required the boats to beat to windward.

The first team to realise this would gain a huge advantage.

Mitchell and Butcher led the fleet of brightly-striped sails of the Dart 16s and spotted the opportunity early.

While the Nacra and Dart 18s were now engaged in a tacking duel out to sea off Holland, Mitchell had sailed the shorter course from the pier and closed within shouting distance of the lead boats at the seaward buoy.

Rounding the seaward, the cats could finally sail a downwind leg back into a buoy laid for the race closer to Frinton.

Allen could finally enjoy the benefit of his kite and pass Mark and George Venables in the standard 16 without this third sail.

Once the handicaps were calculated, Mitchell and Butcher came in ahead of Rob and Cathy Mitchell, both in Dart 16s, with Boxer and Dempsey third.