Twenty-Two Boats Enter Spring Series Race

Gunfleet Sailing Club members made the most of the fine weather over Easter with a good turnout for the final two races in the Club’s Spring Series.

On Sunday morning 24 April the competitors, whilst rigging their boats, were confronted with blue skies, unbroken sunshine and a light offshore wind, but shortly before the start the wind veered round to an easterly direction but remained quite light.  The craft headed towards the Kingscliff mark, tacking in towards the shore in order to mitigate the freshly flooding tide; one or two craft just touching the ground with their centreboards as they edged their way along the shoreline.  The next leg took the boats out to the Seaward buoy on a reach and by this time John Tappenden had pulled away and taken the lead in his Blaze, with Paul Davis and Simon Clarke, both sailing Solutions, battling it out for second and third position. Further down the line the two Comet Duos, sailed by Barry Peters and Tom Fadden Senior, were having their own private tussle with Peters eventually pulling away. 
 
Results: Spring Series - 3
1. Blaze – John Tappenden
2. Solution – Simon Clarke
3. Solution – Paul Davis

Easter Monday 25 April saw the largest fleet racing this year at the Club when 22 boats entered, and completed, the fourth and final race in the Gunfleet’s Spring Series.  Once again blue skies and sunshine greeted the sailors, along with an offshore wind gusting to force three.  After a tight but well behaved start the boats all reached on the last of the ebb tide to the Kingscliff buoy before gybing and heading out to the Seaward mark.  At this early stage of the race the craft all remained quite bunched but as the competitors tacked back to the AWS buoy the different tactics being taken started to split the boats.  In the RS 600’s Kelvin Morton lead Ken Potts but a lucky wind shift for Potts saw him move into the lead, whilst in the Vortexes Derroll Pedder pulled away from Simon Mathewson and continued to widen the gap as the race went on.  All five Solutions were on the water and Davis lead Clark all the way round the course until the very last mark, at St. Michaels, when he touched the buoy and was forced to do a 360 degree penalty, allowing Clarke to slip in front of him.  Slightly further back Mark Venables, Eddie White and Sonny Hart kept their Solutions neck and neck with positions changing constantly.  In the Sea Ranger class Fred Webster lead on the first two legs but Richard Walker overtook him on the third leg and held on to this lead for the rest of the race; whilst the Toppers were dominated by Bethany Ford, with Robert Gutteridge in second place and Tom Fadden Junior taking third.  As the boats crossed the finishing line they were joined by other members taking their craft out for a pleasant sail in quite idyllic conditions; rounding off a perfect sailing Bank Holiday.

Results: Spring Series - 4   
1. Blaze – John Tappenden
2. RS 600 – Ken Potts
3. Vortex – Derroll Pedder

Spring Series Overall
1. Blaze – John Tappenden
2. RS 600 – Ken Potts
3. Solution – Simon Clarke