CATAMARAN sailors gathered at Clacton Sailing Club for the Coronation Cup.

The racing promised to be close and Rob Mitchell was tipped as the man to beat, on his Dart 16.

As it was, Pete Boxer and Eilish Dempsey, in their Dart 18, went on to take the trophy but by only the narrowest of margins.

The contest took place with warm force three to four south-westerlies blowing across deceptively flat seas.

In the last seconds before the gun, Boxer and Dempsey tightly gybed around to sit to windward of the fleet, appearing to target Mitchell.

The latter was then forced to tack off out to sea to escape the dirty wind, leaving much of the fleet to beat along the coast out of the effects of the weakly ebbing tide.

Larry Foxon and Mike Rolff, in the Hurricane, attempted to start on starboard from a position close inshore and could have caught the rest out.

However, they suffered from lack of clean wind and had their work cut out to catch up.

They say races can be won or lost on the start line, which is especially true among this tight fleet of friends who, having competed together over many seasons, produce close racing results where small advantages or errors can make all the difference.

New to the cat scene this year, Mark Venables, with son George, on their Dart 16, made a clean start hard on the tail of Mitchell to get away in third place off the line.

Freeing off at the windward mark for the long downwind run, the fleet was hit by a squal, with strong winds and driving rain.

Catamarans sail the downwind legs as a series of broad reaches to keep the apparent wind flowing over the sails, with the helms making constant adjustments to make the most of surfing swells or stronger wind gusts to sail as low as possible.

Mark and George Venables are obviously developing their cat-handling skills as they reached the downwind buoy still in third place behind Mitchell and keeping the other Dart 18 and even the Hurricane at bay.

Heading upwind, the Hurricane started to stretch its legs, with both Foxon and Rolff now out on the wire and they outpaced Team Venables to climb up the rankings.

The Hurricane eventually passed Mitchell and then Boxer on the run to be first across the line, but adjusted to fourth place overall on handicap.

Daniel Brzezinski, sailing his Dart 18, with all the responsibility of the single-handed racer, found himself temporarily headed for the wrong buoy.

Mistakes in these conditions can be quickly punished and while making the necessary course adjustment he came in from the trapeze wire just as a gust hit and capsized the 18' boat.

With true sportsmanship, he refused offers of support from the rescue boat and went on to right the boat and complete the race, finishing a creditable fifth and learning valuable lessons in the process.

Brian Allen also made the jump from his Laser dinghy to catamaran sailing this week and successfully raced his new Dart 16 single-handed.