Eighteen Boats Enter Race For Jubilee Cup

The glorious weather certainly brought out the sailors last Sunday 8 June when Gunfleet Sailing Club held its race for the Jubilee Cup.  Blue skies and unbroken sunshine, coupled with a light onshore breeze, saw eighteen dinghies taking part in the race and it made an impressive sight to see the craft closely bunched at the very start.  In fact the tide had just completed ebbing and was now making which did catch a few of the boats out; within seconds of the start gun there were two further sound signals and the individual recall flag was hoisted.  All the culprits went about and re-crossed the line, so correcting their error, plus one or two extra boats also followed suit being uncertain if they too had been a bit over-eager.  The first leg was a reach down the coast to the Eastcliff buoy and it was good to see Charlie and Harry Spence, plus Conor and Finlay Williams, both flying their asymmetric spinnakers in their Hobie 405’s.  First to go round the mark was Ken Potts in his RS 600, followed by the Spence boys and then the Williams brothers.  The next leg was a beat out to the Seaward buoy and although some helms headed straight out to sea they were in fact getting the negative impact of the flood tide, whilst the majority of boats tacked and headed back up the coast and past the Club before tacking out to sea and more easily laying the mark.  There then followed a long broad reach down the coast again, to the St. Michael’s buoy.  Peter Downer in his Comet was in amongst the trailing Lasers whilst at the head of this class was Matthew Gough.  Also doing very well at this point was Roy Wyatt in his Comet Zero; the boat’s first outing of the season.  Closely hauled, the craft then sailed back up to the AWS buoy, reached in to the Kingscliff mark before gybing and reaching back through the line.  On the second lap the wind freshened slightly and whilst Brogan Bates and Finn Harkin in a Hobie 405 were battling it out with Ross and Caleb Aylen, also in a 405, disaster struck the Aylen brothers when they capsized, turtled the boat, and seriously bent the mast; the Club’s Rescue Boat having to tow them back to shore.  That, fortunately, was the only incident in an otherwise gentle event.  As well as being the race for the Jubilee Cup it also counted towards Class Points and, for Cadets and Otters, the Spirit of the Wind series.

 

 

 

 

The previous Wednesday evening there was unsettled weather greeting the competitors for the second race in Gunfleet Sailing Club’s Summer Series.  A force four, touching five, west/south westerly wind and an ebb tide certainly kept the competitors on their toes.  At the start Simon Clarke and Emily Cossens defied the rest of the sailors by crossing the opposition’s bows on port tack, and getting away with it.  This put them in a strong position as the boats all beat down the coast to the St. Michael’s buoy, before running back to the Eastcliff mark.  At this point Andy Dunnett lead the Lasers and looked in a strong position to take the race, and the subsequent leg, out to the Seaward buoy, saw some impressive speeds being achieved.  Paul Davis and Yvonne Gough were using every opportunity to fly the kite on their RS 400 but unfortunately, on the reach from Seaward to the Kingscliff buoy they decided to go trawling for fish as the sail went under the hull and acted as a large drogue anchor.  A number of competitors decided to retire after the first lap as the thought of a long and gruelling beat, against the tide, all the way to St. Michael’s buoy proved unpalatable.