Great End To The Summer Series

Gunfleet Sailing Club held the seventh and final race in its Summer Series last Wednesday 11 August.  Amidst the blue skies and last of the evening sunshine, a fresh force 3 to 4 southerly wind blew, providing almost perfect conditions for the competitors taking part.  Andy Dunnett immediately lead the fleet in his Laser, followed closely by Martin Chivers, also in a Laser, and as the boats headed close hauled to the Eastcliff windward mark Dunnett lead all the way.  From there it was a beat out to the Lilley Farm buoy, which a number of helms overstood, before reaching out to the Seaward buoy.  With the Laser fleet having a mix of rigs, from full, through radial, to the 4.7 it could never be clear at this stage who was actually leading on handicap, especially as some were intermingled amongst the Solo, Europe and Comet classes.  Those that immediately gybed at the offshore mark, as they then ran to the Preston Park buoy, found they had possibly been a bit too eager, resulting in further gybes taking place.  This was the cause of Robert Mitchell capsizing and, despite a hasty righting of his Laser, he was forced to then play catch-up with several helms that had seized the opportunity to overtake him.  A broad reach then followed, down to the Kingscliff mark, before a beat out to AWS.  As the boats headed to this latter buoy both Dunnett and Chivers were neck and neck, with Chivers just rounding it first, Rob Lockett in his Laser being right behind them both and Clare Giles just second away in her Europe.  The short reach back through the line saw Dunnett outmanoeuvre Chivers to lead at the end of the first lap.  As the wind freshened slightly so Malcolm Smith did well to manage the conditions in his Comet.  During the second lap Lockett, who had been constantly snapping at Chivers’ heels, managed to get past him but otherwise positions changed very little, whilst in the third lap Derroll Pedder capsized on the run from Seaward to Preston Park, losing him several minutes.  All this time Dunnett continued to pull away from the rest of the fleet and so gain a comfortable win, with Lockett second and Chivers third.  However, on calculation of whole the series it was Ken Potts that took overall victory in his Laser. 

Results – Summer Series Overall:
1.    Laser – Ken Potts
2.    Laser – Robert Mitchell
3.    Comet – Malcolm Smith