Mariquita Book - mk2

Beken of Cowes
Technical Note
Mariquita looks pretty serene as she ‘takes the gun’ in front of the Royal Yacht Squadron. It’s
tempting to switch off once your race is run but quite often the finishing line is fraught with
danger. As Mariquita takes at least seven minutes to do a full gybe she is running by the lee
to get down inside the finish mark, as there is not enough time or sea room to gybe twice and
reset the balloon jib (spinnaker). In order to sail ‘by the lee’, which is inherently dangerous as
you risk an involuntary gybe, the boom is pulled forward by a preventer. With the boom out
to port, and the spinnaker out to starboard, Mariquita is 160ft wide. In order to cross the line,
the boom has to pass over the top of the moorings and the pole over the top of the orange
finish mark. Out of shot, dead ahead, is Charles Dunstone’s race yacht, Spectre, swinging
on its mooring. Mariquita is heading straight at her with the tide behind. The crew have
just enough time to drop the spinnaker, luff to a safe angle, un-rig the preventer and finally
luff to avoid the moored yacht. The next two obstacles are the Danish and Norwegian Royal
yachts helpfully parked up in front of the Egypt Point finish line, which is an exclusion zone!
Mariquita manages to thread the eye of the needle between all these obstacles before the crew
can finally take a breath and toast their win. Racing a big classic yacht is a lot more complicated
than it looks but we got the win and the photograph to prove it!
David Bedford
253