Sixteen boats take part in the fourth and final Spring Series race

Members of the Gunfleet Sailing Club made the most of the recent good weather, and on Sunday morning 11 May sixteen boats took part in the fourth and final race of the Club’s Spring Series. So ideal were the conditions that several other members also got afloat and just enjoyed a bit of relaxing sailing, making an impressive sight to the many members of the public in the vicinity of the Club’s headquarters below Hazlemere Road, Holland on Sea.

Those taking part in the race all started on a starboard tack, in a fresh north-easterly breeze, and beat close to shore to avoid the freshly flooding tide as they headed towards the first mark at Kingscliff. Unfortunately at an early stage Mark Venables was forced to retire in his RS600, whilst the other RS 600 sailed by Kelvin Morton stuck close on the heels of Ken Potts who led the way in his RS 700. A lively reach then followed as the fleet headed out to the Seaward buoy followed by a gybe and a second reach back to the AWS mark. By this time some of the craft had spread out but a number of Lasers stayed closely together and on the run to the St. Michael’s buoy not only were Andy Dunnett and John Tappenden neck and neck but they were also parallel with Simon Clarke in his Solution. This led to some interesting tactics as the boats all tried to round the mark together. Slightly further back Fred Webster led the slow handicap boats in his Sea Ranger although he was hotly pursued by Michael Pedder and Charlie Venables in the Topaz.

On the second lap Yvonne Gough capsized her Laser at the Seaward gybe mark and Potts lost quite a bit of time at the St. Michael’s buoy when the spinnaker on his RS 700 got jammed. On the positive side Antony Reeve pushed his Laser to its maximum and, having worked his way up the fleet, began to put pressure on Paul Stanton, Dunnett and Tappenden. However none of the Lasers were able to prevent Kelvin Morton from taking top spot on handicap in his RS 600.

Results:
Spring Series 4:
1. RS 600 – Kelvin Morton
2. Laser – John Tappenden
3. Laser – Andy Dunnett

Spring Series Overall:
1. Laser – John Tappenden
2. Solution – Simon Clarke
3. Xenon – Paul and Katie Davis