Great Start To The 2014 Sailing Season

Gunfleet Sailing Club celebrated the start of the 2014 season with its Fitting-Out Super last Saturday evening, 29 March; so popular was the event that the “house-full” sign went up weeks ago and several members were unable to get tickets.  Club Commodore Richard Walker welcomed all those present and was pleased to be able to say goodbye to the wet and windy winter, thanking the members for such splendid support during the recent annual Work Weekend which resulted in the place being made smart and tidy for the coming year.  There then followed the traditional fish and chip meal and a toast to a good sailing year ahead.

 

The next day eleven dinghies took part in the very first race of 2014, for the March Hare Trophy, in a very light north easterly wind with a strong ebb tide.  At the start it was Sonny Hart first across the line in his Solution but he was soon in the wind-shadow of Paul Davis and Beth Ford in their RS 400; close behind being Peter Downer in his Comet.  The fleet beat out to sea on the initial leg up the coast to the Kingscliff buoy and it was Ken Potts that rounded the mark first in his RS 600 but after that he started to slip back.  The RS 400 made an impressive sight as the spinnaker was hoisted, and the Hobie 405 of Beth Elliott and Darcie Baker followed suit and it too soon had the asymmetric kite flying; the boats all reaching out to the Seaward mark.  A rather lazy gybe out at sea saw the competitors heading in towards shore and the AWS buoy before running down the coast to the Eastcliff buoy and beating back through the line.  Brogan and Max Bates, also in a Hobie 405, managed to slip past Elliott and Baker whilst further back Harry Swinbourne in his Topper put the pressure on father and sister – Steve and Daisy Swinbourne in their Topaz.  As the boats completed their first lap it was Downer’s Comet in the lead by a small margin, the second lap seeing little change.