Cadets & Otters Elect a New Committee at Annual General Meeting
Gunfleet Sailing Club's Cadets and Otters held their Annual General Meeting last Sunday 15 November and looked back over a very successful 2009 sailing season. The Club now has over 60 Cadets and Otters and a full and varied programme of events. As well as all the usual Club activities the young members had their own Wednesday After School Sailing, Sailing On Saturday, Bring a Friend Day, races for Cadet and Otter Trophies, a full Cadet Week during the Summer holidays and Cadet Day as part of the Club’s Regatta Weekend.
At the meeting the following were elected to posts on the Cadet Committee for 2010:
Commodore: Sonny Hart
Vice Commodore: Matt Downing
Rear Commodore: Charlie Venables
Sailing Secretary: Ben Withams
Social Secretary: Anna Challis
Compound Officer: Tom Fadden
The Cadets and Otters then put forward ideas for the 2010 programme and this included race training, a moonlight cruise, home and away sailing with cadets from other local sailing clubs, and a trip out to a theme park.
Also on Sunday the Gunfleet held the fourth race in its Winter Series. In a southerly breeze and freshly ebbing tide it was Sebastien Mathewson that was first across the start line in a Topaz, but he was soon overtaken by Kelvin Morton in his RS600 and Andy Dunnett in his Laser. Simon Mathewson had a technical hitch in his Vortex and lost a lot of time on the first leg which resulted in him struggling to catch up during the rest of the race. The very broad reach out to the Seaward gybe mark saw Morton pull away from the rest of the fleet and he continued to sail faultlessly around the course. Although the wind was not that strong the sea had a swell, remaining after the previous day’s storm, which made it quite hard work for the slower handicapped boats as they punched the tide down to the AWS buoy. After the first lap Sebastien Mathewson continued to do well, keeping in front of Yvonne Gough in her Laser 4.7 but he lost out on the second lap. Despite some good kite work from Paul Davis and Dave Fowell in their Xenon they were unable to make any real impression on the leading two boats with another win for Morton, putting him in a very strong position overall.
Results – Winter Series 4
1. RS600 – Kelvin Morton
2. Solution – Simon Clarke
3. Xenon – Paul Davis and Dave Fowell
