Tim Wins The Autumn Series After Exciting Battle

The last race in Gunfleet Sailing Club’s Autumn Series was held on Sunday 6 October 2024 in the liveliest conditions of the year, to date, but it didn’t deter the hardy members from taking part.  

Once again a force five to six east/south easterly wind, coupled with powerful waves, made launching quite tricky but everyone got off the beach successfully.  The only craft that had a few issues was the Club’s Safety Boat, with a misbehaving engine, but the crew returned to shore and returned back out to sea in the Club’s second Safety Boat; the Race Officer hoisting the fifteen minute postponement flag to ensure everything was properly settled.  At the start, the wind gusted 29 mph and the boats accelerated on a flying reach up the coast to the Kingscliff buoy, John Heath leading in his Blaze and Ken Potts just to windward of him in his Laser; Tim Dye champing at Potts’s stern in his RS Aero, eager to get past but squeezed out by the Outer Distance Mark.  Despite the negative effect of the flood tide, the boats hurtled along and Dye soon put himself in front of both Potts and Heath, reaching the first buoy several boat lengths ahead.  The helms then hardened up and beat out to the Preston Park buoy, Dye opening the gap all the time.  The third leg was a dead run back to the Kingscliff mark and, apart from trying to keep upright, it was choosing the best time to put in a gybe.  Dye certainly looked like he was unstoppable but half way down the leg he suffered a death-roll, capsizing his Aero and allowing both Potts and Heath to roar past.  Meanwhile, slightly further back was Derroll Pedder in his RS Aero, working hard to get into the top three.  Having beat back out again, to Preston Park, it was then a screaming reach to the AWS buoy, a close reach to the Lilley Farm mark, and then a second run, this time to the Eastcliff buoy.  This leg also saw the second gybe of the course and resulted in capsizes for both Heath and Pedder.  And if anyone had written Dye off, after his earlier misfortune, then they could only watch as he cranked up the power and, one by one, overtook his rivals to regain first place by the end of lap one.  The second lap was uneventful, but in the third lap Dye, once again capsized, this time on the reach from Preston Park to AWS, but the boat was up in seconds and appeared unstoppable.  The fourth, and final, lap saw Dye take the honours and win both the race and the series overall.  However, the “man of the match” had to be Cadet Finley Taylor who took his Topper round the course in extremely lively conditions, without capsizing once.  Where the average sailing years of the adult competitors was around forty, Taylor has only been sailing for some five years and put up an extremely impressive performance.    

Autumn Series Overall:
1.    RS Aero – Tim Dye
2.    Laser – Ken Potts
3.    RS Aero – Derroll Pedder