First Race in the Spring Series Takes Place

Eleven boats took to the water at the Gunfleet Sailing Club last Sunday morning when the first race of the Spring Series was held. The conditions appeared almost perfect with a force three south/south westerly wind, a flat sea and blue skies and sunshine. Officer of the Day John Clarke set an interesting course that commenced with a long beat down the coast to the St. Michaels buoy followed by a close reach out to the Seaward mark. Shortly after the start Mark Venables was forced to return to the beach in his newly acquired RS 600, having capsized and then struggled to right the boat.
Fighting the last of the ebb tide on the first leg all the competitors stayed close to shore and it wasn’t long before they were round the first mark and heading out to sea. What was surprising was the impression on the fleet that the Lasers had all made, being in front of several of the faster handicapped craft. The boats then all headed back to the Eastcliff buoy before deviating around the AWS buoy on their way back to the Seaward mark. It was after Eastcliff that those craft with spinnakers attempted to fly them with mixed success. Paul and Katie Davis found it to be no problem in their Xenon whilst Ken Potts, sailing single-handed in his RS 700 struggled a bit with his asymmetric kite, particularly being out on the wire for much of the time, but once the sail filled he really took off. Derroll Pedder waited until the leg from Seaward to Kingscliff buoy before attempting to fly his spinnaker. This was a particularly impressive sight as he was sailing single handed in a two person Vago with both jib and mainsail to control, as well as steering. By the end of the first lap Potts had a convincing lead but he was to lose it all on the second lap when he capsized at a mark and lost several minutes trying to right the boat. It was good to see three Redeye Solutions on the water as these craft only went into production a couple of years ago, Simon Clarke leading whilst following close behind were Dave Fowell and Eddie White.

However it became obvious that the Lasers were going to dominate the race on handicap and in the end they took three of the top four places.

Results: Spring Series 1

1. Laser - John Tappenden 2. Solution - Simon Clarke 3. Laser - Andy Dunnett

Congratulations must also go to Paul and Katie Davis who took their Xenon to Fishers Green Sailing Club the day before in order to take part in a Xenon Open Meeting. Against stiff competition from many other clubs the couple took first place, demonstrating the high standard of sailing emanating from the Gunfleet Sailing Club.