Sailing Report

It was fantastic to welcome back some of our celebrity alumni for a star studded day of racing today – and a special hello to Brian Gow, Graham Cranford Smith, Keith Hill and Nick Fisher.

Despite the forecast of winds gusting over 30 knots and heavy rain for most of the day we enjoyed a superb force 3 to 4 and lashings of sunshine J

By the time of the start the wind had settled from the south west and we were set a club house line up to 8. There was height to be gained by sticking close to the inner distance mark – but at the sacrifice of pressure and come the hooter we were all pretty evenly spaced out. However, it was Chris G who was the first to clear his air after finding a little bit more breeze 4 to 5 boat lengths out, closely followed by Graham and then myself.

The three of us managed to get round the first mark without incident but there was a medley of boats just behind us which included Brian K, Nick, Nigel, Gary, Brian, Keith and John N. The second leg was a broad reach and it was all about trying to get on the plane. Out of nowhere Brian K flew passed me and began to challenge for second place, and the fleet divided into three separate groups to provide some fantastically close racing from front to back. From a distance I saw lots of ducking and diving between the leading trio and each of Nick, Nigel and I couldn’t have been closer come the final beat to the line: we crossed each other just inches apart.

In the final reckoning Chris G came first, Graham second and Brian was just flushed out in third.

If that was good the afternoon race was even more exciting. Both Steve and Rick joined the party and there was hardly anything in it come the rounding of the first windward mark. However this time it was Steve who put Chris under most pressure and although Chris won again both Steve and Graham were still in hot contention come the finish. Many congratulations – and a fantastic day’s racing.

An Association Training Day

A number of you have suggested the idea of a special Solo Association Training Day to take place probably on a Saturday sometime in advance of our Open Meeting which is this year scheduled for Saturday 24th June.

If you are interested and so that we can gauge possible numbers can you first please email me with your expression of interest (a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ would be most helpful)?

Alex Timms / Solo 4336 / Jan 2017