Harry Takes The Trophies

Members of Gunfleet Sailing Club joined their friends at Clacton Sailing Club for their Regatta last Sunday 6 July, and for Cadet Harry Swinbourne it turned out to be a day not to forget when he won the trophy for first Cadet home in the CUDC Cup race, only to find that he had also won the actual CUDC Trophy overall.  Gunfleet members Peter Downer and Robert Gutteridge also took first place in the RNLI Pennant race for first dinghy and first Cadet respectively.

 

Gunfleet Sailing Club held the first race in its series for the Tony Chadd Trophy the previous Wednesday evening.  Traditionally the wind falls away at this time of day but in this instance it was a freshening force four south-easterly, promising perfect conditions.  Simon Clarke and Emily Cossens got a cracking start in their Scorpion but Ken Potts in his RS 600 shot past them and went storming down the coast to the St. Michaels buoy, despite stemming an ebb tide.  There then followed a fetch to the Seaward mark and a sudden gust caught Ross and Caleb Aylen out, who capsized in their Hobie 405 but soon had it righted.  The next one to capsize was Yvonne Gough in her Laser as she gybed round the Seaward buoy, turtling her boat but managing to right it speedily without any outside assistance.  Surprisingly Paul Davis and Robert Gutteridge, sailing the RS 400, chose not to downwind tack with their asymmetric spinnaker but instead ran straight down on to the AWS buoy.  Beating back out to the Seaward buoy seemed to go smoothly for everyone until Derroll Pedder capsized his Solution at the offshore mark.  This gave Matt Gough the chance to close the gap in his Laser and as they completed the next reach to the Kingscliff buoy Matt seized the opportunity and cut tight between Pedder and the mark, stealing his wind and pulling ahead.  Meanwhile, in the slow handicap fleet, Brogan Bates and Finn Harkin were having their own tussle in Topazes with Harkin pulling ahead, whilst quietly putting on the pressure was Harry Swinbourne in his Topper, eventually beating both of them.  However, nothing was going to stop Potts who completed the course in amazing time, so taking a very comfortable victory.