Ken Potts Takes His Own Trophy

Fifteen boats took part last Sunday 15 June in the Gunfleet Sailing Club race for the Potts’ Pursuit Trophy, and victory went to the person who presented the trophy to the Club.  Being a pursuit race it means that each class of dinghy is set off at a different time according to its handicap and then, at a pre-planned time a horn signifies the end of the event and in theory all boats are together.

Under blue skies, sunshine and a light offshore breeze the Sea Ranger class were the first away, and as the class flag fell from the yardarm Fred Webster lead the fleet.  The three Sea Rangers reached down the coast to the St. Michael’s buoy and some ten minutes after their start the Witch was away, sailed by Shelby and Dave Fowell, and in hot pursuit.  A few minutes later it was the turn of Derroll Pedder in his Q’ba, followed very shortly after that by Mark and Charlie Venables in their Topaz.  This continued until 38 minutes after the first boats started when the RS 700, sailed by Ken Potts, became the last craft to get underway.  As the boats headed out to sea the wind shifted to the west, but then continued to vary several degrees so causing some frustration to the competitors.

Paul and Katie Davis used the kite on their Xenon to the full and soon picked off the slower boats, taking the lead position some half way into the race, closely followed by Simon Clarke in his Solution.  The Lasers were closely bunched just after that, being led by John Heath, with Paul Stanton and Yvonne Gough both close on his heels.  As time marched on a battle emerged between Peter Downer in his Comet, the Venables in their Topaz and Pedder in his Q’ba but it wasn’t going to impact on the top positions.  With just minutes to go until the end of the race it looked likely that the Xenon was going to take the winning gun but, having worked his way up from the very back of the fleet, Potts just managed to slip in front of the Xenon and win the race.

Results:

Potts Pursuit Cup:
1.    RS 700 – Ken Potts
2.    Xenon – Paul and Katie Davis
3.    Solution – Simon Clarke

The previous Wednesday evening 11 June the Gunfleet Sailing Club held the second race in its Summer Series and once again it was a light offshore breeze that greeted the thirteen competitors.  John Heath was first to cross the start line but it wasn’t long before Glen Bacon had pushed ahead in his Solution.  Once around the Eastcliff buoy the boats found themselves being swept up the coast as they headed out towards the Seaward mark, and during this time the positions began to chase.  Peter Downer in his Comet was once again in amongst the Lasers and try as they might they couldn’t shake him off.  After the beat to the AWS buoy the boats had a dead run back out to seaward, and again the tide carried one or two boats up the coast.  There was however one very surprising capsize when a sudden gust of wind caught Kelvin Morton out and his RS 600 tipped over, but otherwise it was an uneventful race.

Results:

Summer Series 2:
1.    Solution – Simon Clarke
2.    Solution – Glen Bacon
3.    Laser – John Heath