Nineteen Boats Take Part In Potterers' Pot

Gunfleet Sailing Club received a visit from a surprise guest last Sunday 22 August when former England Rugby Player Jason Leonard OBE popped in to wish the Club’s youngsters all the best at their forthcoming Cadet Week.  Jason, who holds the world record for being the most-capped forward, has done a bit of sailing and visited the Gunfleet to see for himself the activities on offer to budding young sailors.  He was so impressed that he hoped to return later in the week and get out on the water.

Also on Sunday afternoon the Gunfleet held its race for the slow handicap boats, for the aptly named Potterers’ Pot, when no less than nineteen dinghies took part.  As this race also counted towards class points it was not surprising that there was a fleet of Topazes, Toppers and Sea Rangers on the water.

In a force two onshore wind it was Matthew Gough who lead the boats across the Start line in the Pico closely followed by Derroll Pedder in his Qba and Fred Webster in his Sea Ranger.  It wasn’t long before the craft had reached the Eastcliff buoy and the vast majority of boats tacked around this mark and started to head out the Seaward buoy, although the strong ebb tide was to their disadvantage.  However, Peter Downer in his Comet, Richard Walker in his Sea Ranger, and Charlie Venables and George David in their Topaz continued on their original tack, just pointing as high as they could and made-up some good ground.  Once around Seaward the craft ran towards the coast and the AWS buoy, then tacked back out to Seaward before a very broad reach down to the Kingscliff buoy and back through the line.  At the end of the first lap Downer lead the fleet on handicap whilst Bethany Ford lead the Topazes, Ben Richardson the Toppers and Webster the Sea Rangers.  During the second lap there were quite a few changes in places, with incredibly tight tussles at the head of each class.  Venables and David slipped across the finish line just six seconds ahead of Ford in the Topaz fleet, Sebastien Mathewson took the winning gun in the Toppers and Walker lead the sea Rangers home.  In the overall race the finishes were just as tight and whilst Downer won the Trophy he was only three seconds ahead of Dave Fowell and Tony Merryweather in the Witch.

Results: Potterers’ Pot:
1. Comet Mino – Peter Downer
2. Witch – Dave Fowell and Tony Merryweather
3. Qba – Derroll Pedder
Class Points: Topaz:
1. Charlie Venables and George David
2. Bethany Ford
3. Jon and Linda Meggison
Topper:
1. Sebastien Mathewson
2. Ben Richardson
3. Tom Fadden
Sea Ranger:
1. Richard Walker
2. Fred Webster
3. Lesley Sacre