End Of Season Cruise Success

Last Saturday 19 September the Gunfleet Sailing Club held its End of Season Cruise in a light north easterly breeze.  Twelve boats took part, accompanied by the one of the Club’s Rescue Boats, and the fleet headed towards St. Osyth on the last of the flood tide.  After a very pleasant run down the coast the craft landed and the crews relaxed on the beach and had lunch before beating back to the Club, assisted by the ebb tide.

On Sunday it was an early start as the members of the Gunfleet Sailing Club took part in the second and final race in the series for the Egg and Bacon Trophy.  Unfortunately Harry and Charlie Spence jumped the start line in their Topaz but the hoisting of the individual recall flag confused some of the other competitors.  John Heath and Yvonne Gough, both sailing Lasers, headed back to the start line and hung around believing there to be a general recall.  The rest of the fleet carried on and John Tappenden was quick to pull ahead in his Blaze, followed closely by Simon Clarke in the Solution.  In a fresh offshore wind, and with the tide under them, the craft took just minutes on the close reach to the Eastcliff buoy before gybing and heading out to the Seaward mark on a much broad reach.  After the first lap it was Andy Dunnett leading the Lasers but during the second lap Antony Reeve pulled ahead whilst back in the slow handicap fleet Peter Downer sailed a very clean course and took third place overall, behind Tappenden and Clark, in his Comet.  After combining the positions with the first race, held earlier in the year, it showed the top three positions overall reflected the results of the second race.

Results – Egg and Bacon Series Overall:

1.  Blaze – John Tappenden
2.  Solution – Simon Clarke
3.  Comet – Peter Downer