Ken Takes His Laser To Victory

Gunfleet Sailing Club kicked-off its Spring Series of races with fifteen dinghies taking part, the winner being Ken Potts in his Laser.

A cold north/north-westerly force 3 breeze was offset by blue skies and sunshine and the competitors all got afloat early in order to lap-up the conditions; practicing their starts and planning on the best tactics to get ahead of their rivals.  At the start a tightly bunched group, mid line, headed down to the first buoy, St. Michael’s, with Potts neck and neck with John Tappenden in his RS Aero, whilst Joff Strutt and Brian Allen, also in Lasers, and Simon Clarke in a Solo, clung doggedly to them.  Trying a different tactic was Robert Mitchell in his Laser, who had earlier found some pockets of stronger wind closer to shore and aimed to take a broader reach and pull ahead, but luck was against him when these favourable conditions disappeared.  With the flood tide under them, the boats were soon rounding the first mark with Potts now in front, but Tappenden continuing to snap at his heels.  The second leg was a broad reach out to the Seaward mark and the fleet had, by this time, started to split into smaller groups, with the leaders being Potts, Tappenden and Clarke, whilst a little further behind were Laser sailors Strutt, Tim Dye and Paul Stanton; in amongst them being Dave Ingle in his RS Aero.  Once round the offshore buoy it was a beat in to shore and round the AWS mark, and whilst the obvious course was to harden up and tack up the coast, with the tide pulling the craft onto the next buoy, Tappenden chose to go about and have the tide under him again; a tactic that clearly didn’t pay off.  As the boats rounded AWS so Stanton was being challenged by Mitchell, with Strutt continuing to maintain his lead in this second group.  It was then back out to Seaward on a run before a fetch in to the Kingscliff buoy and then back through the line, but halfway through the first lap the wind faded to a very light breeze and slowed the whole fleet down.  Dye took an “early bath” on the leg from Seaward to Kingscliff when a sudden wind shift caught him out but he was up within seconds and still in the thick of things.  As the competitors finished the first lap, and with the wind freshening again, it was Potts in the lead followed by Clarke and then Tappenden; Strutt would have been fourth but went the wrong side of the Outer Distance Mark and lost two places correcting his error.  The second lap saw Tappenden slip in front of Clarke, whilst Allen capsized and turtled his Laser at the AWS buoy, but he soon had it upright and was back on his way.  The original three lap course was then shortened to just two laps.

Results – Spring Series - 1:
1.    Laser – Ken Potts
2.    RS Aero – John Tappenden
3.    Solo – Simon Clarke