Cornforth Takes Opening Race Of The 2021 Season

Gunfleet Sailing Club welcomed an enthusiastic group of sailors on Easter Sunday in the first race of the 2021 season, for the March Hare Trophy, postponed from the previous Sunday due to the Covid restrictions.  After a very exciting battle on the water it was Andy Cornforth that claimed victory, in his Laser, by just one second.

As the crews rigged their single handed dinghies there was a light force two south westerly breeze blowing, coupled with sunshine and a blue sky.  The boats soon launched and the prize for the first capsize of the season went to Beth Ford in her Laser, who gybed whilst her foot was on her mainsheet.  The competitors jostled close to the line and as the start flag fell from the yardarm it was Andy Dunnett who was first away in his Laser, followed by Cornforth in his Laser, both on starboard tack and heading out to sea in order to gain the full benefit of the freshly rising tide.  Meanwhile Paul Stanton and Ford, in their Lasers, took a port tack, with Stanton sweeping around the fishtail groyne and hugging the water’s edge until he could go about and head directly for the Eastcliff buoy in one.  Quietly ploughing his own furrow was Cornforth who avoided other competitors’ dirty wind and slipped round the Eastcliff mark first, with Dunnett and Ken Potts, also in a Laser, snapping at his heels.  Unfortunately Stanton capsized at this point which allowed both Ford and Yvonne Gough, who also sailed a Laser, to slip by.  The next leg took the boats on a fetch to the Lilley Farm buoy before running to the AWS mark, and it was this latter leg that saw Cornforth pull away a little.  Whilst things were hotting-up at the front of the fleet there was some exciting sailing further back and it was good to see Michael Gutteridge, in his Solo, challenging Eddie White in his Laser, although both managed to capsize later in the race as the wind freshened.  Once round the AWS it was a fetch out to the Seaward buoy and a reach up the coast to the Kingscliff mark before a beat back through the line.  At the end of the first lap Cornforth was ahead of Potts by eleven seconds but by the end of the second lap the gap had closed to five seconds.  Positions were changing quite regularly on the third and final lap and, in a nail biting finish, it was Conforth that nosed ahead of Potts by just a few feet.  

Results – March Hare Trophy:
1.    Laser – Andy Cornforth 
2.    Laser – Ken Potts
3.    Laser – Andy Dunnett