A Cracking 3-in-1 Day At Gunfleet

The fabulous weather on Sunday 11 August saw twenty-three boats take to the water when Gunfleet Sailing Club held one of its special 3-in-1 races; three short races, using the same course, back to back with no discards and all results counting to the overall positions.

Blue skies, unbroken sunshine, and a force three, gusting four, north-easterly wind provided idyllic conditions as the fleet gathered for the start of the first race.  The boats were soon underway and beat up the coast to the Kingscliff buoy, most taking the obvious route which was to start on starboard tack and head as close to the shore as possible to mitigate the negative effect of the freshly flooding tide.  The helms then threw in a tack and headed out to sea which resulted in them being on port and having to give way to competitors still on starboard.  John Tappenden lead the RS Aero fleet but found it impossible to keep ahead of Ken Potts in his Laser as the boats, having rounded Kingscliff, now ran to the AWS mark.  Right at the back was the RS 200 of John and Sarah Heath who returned to the start line at the “off” as they mistakenly believed they were over the line.  There followed a short reach into the ODM before a second beat up to Kingscliff and a run back to the finish.  Potts took the first race, but very closely followed by Andy Dunnett in his Laser, and third was Tappenden’s RS Aero.

In the second race Potts sailed down the line and speedily hardened up as the start got underway, beating into the alcove of the fishtail groyne before smartly tacking.  He cleared his nearest rival, who was still on starboard, but got caught by a whole group of boats and had to tack again.  It wasn’t long before the Kingscliff buoy was rounded and the Heaths had the asymmetric spinnaker hoisted on their RS 200 and just flew down to AWS.  Tappenden, once again, lead the RS Aeros but had Derroll Pedder just behind him in his RS Aero.  Meanwhile Dunnett sailed a very clean course and took the honours, followed by Potts, and then Paul Stanton who took his Laser into third place.

The final race saw a large bunch of boats heading down the line before pointing as high as they could once the race got underway.  By now, tactics were well mapped out and sharp tacking was the order of the day, duals going on throughout.  Adam Kedge showed consistency in his Laser, coming in sixth, Pedder fifth, and Stanton fourth, but the top three places went to Potts first, Tappenden second, and Dunnett third; combining all three races saw Potts take the Shield.  

Bill Clarke Shield:
1.    Laser – Ken Potts
2.    Laser – Andy Dunnett
3.    RS Aero – John Tappenden