Areas

The Areas are where the sailing is! Please see below for links to the areas and other places to help you make the most of your Shrimper.

 

racing Jenny B in Rock

After years of summer dinghy racing in Rock Graham Renwick and I had both had enough of swimming in the estuary trying to right capsized boats and agreed that we would pool our resources and buy an inboard Shrimper. After 6 months of looking we found a real beauty on the marina in Kingswear in immaculate condition but with some very strange rigging.

buying the boat

274 was bought new by a Swiss gentleman in 1988 for use on the Continent and as a result had never touched salt water till 2000 when she returned to Blighty. She had acquired some seriously oversized sails - about 40% more sail area - including a battened main, oversized jib complete with Moby Dick style extra length bowsprit, and even a spinnaker! Several of the old salts in Rock became almost apoplectic when they saw her. Luckily the little used original sails were still with her (anyone want the big ones?) and by dint of a fair bit of work she was converted back to original spec for racing. Three years on our purchase has proved to be very canny as her general condition is better than many boats in the 600s.

racing in Rock

The Shrimper fleet in Rock which numbers well over 40 at its height has a hard core of racers most of whom honed their skills in dinghies and includes two ex-national dinghy champions. The racing standard is really very high with probably three or four “hot shoes” who are most likely to win, a couple of slow boats expected to be near the back and a great bunch of very competent sailors in the middle who can feature anywhere in the results. I have to say that with us both in our mid 50s we lowered the average age of the fleet a bit!

Thanks to much helpful advice from other owners and some hard work from Brian Smith's yard (which continues to this day) we were ready to sail in the 2003 Shrimper Week which attracts either side of 30 boats. Our sole intention was to avoid being last in any race which we duly achieved albeit in the final race by a margin of not much more than the (now shortened) bowsprit. We learned a lot sharing the boat; we thought that the learning process would be slower but in fact whichever one of us crews does the coaching and we have very much learned together. Graham had his first full week in the second big week of sailing each year, Camel Week, which again musters about 30 Shrimpers out of some 100 boats.

There is no doubt that a Shrimper is an easy boat to rig and handle but as everyone said to us it will take at least three years to learn to race it properly. After three years I would agree with that, the most difficult aspect being racing her well in light airs. When the numbers are large the position at the first mark generally determines which end of the fleet you will get a result in. Our positions have consistently improved from counting from the back in year one, to middle of the fleet in year two, to this year scraping into the top third.

During the summer there is racing for Shrimpers every other weekend which normally sees of the order of ten boats taking part with no let up in the competitive nature of the racing. The Shrimper owners enjoy a tremendous social life together probably as they are like minded folk (a lot of old saddos really trying to stave off old age). Partly I suspect being at the birthplace of all Shrimpers there are a lot of people thinking of buying boats seeing what enjoyment we have; the biggest problem now however, due to their success, is the shortage of moorings.

differentiating the types

The proposal from the RYA to differentiate the yardsticks for the different engine / propeller arrangements on Shrimpers has not been welcomed here as we sail as one fleet which is easy on the officials and where you finish on the water is where you finish in the results. We all know who has an inboard and who an outboard, and I, even though we would gain from it, feel that it would break up the happy band of sailors all enjoying good racing and good company.

Simon Pain

For contact details of rock, more..