Tappenden In Blaze Of Glory

The weather proved ideal last Sunday 27 May when Gunfleet Sailing Club held its race for the London Trophy, only open to those boats with a yardstick number faster than 1189.  Thirteen dinghies took part, under blue skies and unbroken sunshine, in a pleasant force two gusting force four east/north-easterly breeze.  With the freshly flooding tide holding the competitors back it allowed everyone to nudge up to the line as the seconds ticked away to the start of the race; although at one point it looked like Paul Davis in his Solution and Andy Dunnett in his Laser might just have been a bit too eager.  The boats then beat up the coast to the Kingscliff buoy before reaching out to the Seaward mark, gybing, and heading into the AWS buoy, back out to Seaward and then a very broad reach to St. Michael’s mark before a run up to the Clacton Pier buoy and a long beat all the way back through the line.  On the leg from Seaward to St. Michael’s John Tappenden sailed his Blaze around the Eastcliff buoy which, whilst not disqualifying him, did waste valuable minutes.  The more confident helms that were further back stuck to a true course but one or two decided to follow Tappenden and they too found themselves dropping places.  Eddie White capsized his Solution as he went round the Pier buoy but didn’t take long to right his boat and chase his rivals.  The beat back from the Pier to the line saw the competitors groyne-hopping as they tried to mitigate the adverse effects of the strengthening flood tide. Ironically for Tappenden his earlier faux pas didn’t stop him taking the lead after the first lap and he built on this during lap two so taking the victory gun.