Sailing

Overnight gale force winds had dropped to around 20 knots by the start of the fourth races of the First Wednesday Series on 15th May and continued to decrease as forecast throughout the evening. With the Cats staying ashore, a reduced fleet of 28 boats took to the water, with all three classes being given three round courses within the confines of Gurnard bay in order to avoid the rough seas offshore.

Keith Hayden’s RS700 took an early lead in the Fast Handicap Class, but a couple of capsizes meant that he was never far enough ahead of the chasing RS400s to win on corrected time. James Downer and Graham Deegan enjoyed a close battle throughout, with the former covering tightly on the final beat to take victory by a couple of boat lengths.

A similar race ensued in the Medium Handicap Class, with James French and Mark Harrison almost match racing each other throughout, with the extra power of Mark’s bigger sail enabling him to squeeze out a one minute lead by the finish, correcting to a 28 second winning margin. Harry Blowers was the first Laser to finish in fifth place.

The Slow Handicap Class enjoyed a close race, with all but the Schofield’s Mirror closely bunched at the end of the first round. Two rounds later, Ted Blowers was the first to finish in his Laser 4.7, followed by Robin and Thomas Leather’s Feva, but 4 minutes after the leader had finished, Andy Paterson’s Pico crossed the line to win on handicap.
On Sunday the Cats went out for a play, but organised racing was canned for lack of wind.

Mike Casson

Results –
Fast Handicap Class – 1st James Downer & Jon Price, 2nd Graham Deegan & Judith French, 3rd Chris Symons; Medium Handicap Class – 1st Mark Harrison, 2nd James French, 3rd Paul Blowers; Slow Handicap Class – 1st Andy Paterson, 2nd Robin & Thomas Leather, 3rd Ted Blowers.

The calms of Bank Holiday Monday gave way to a week of strong winds, with only nine boats taking to the water for the third series of evening races on Wednesday week (8th May). The Laser 4000 of Haines & Lynch led the Fast Handicap Class for much of the race until they parted with their rig following a particularly heavy capsize. This enabled the remaining trio of RS400s to take advantage of their misfortune, led home by Graham Deegan & Judith French.

The RS100s of James French & Mark Harrison enjoyed a close tussle in the Medium Handicap Class until James went offshore too early for the final windward mark, missed it, and capsized, letting Mark through to take line honours. Victory on corrected time however went to the Laser of Harry Blowers by a mere three seconds, whilst the club Feva of Dan Atherton & James Oxenham was the sole finisher in the Slow group.

Conditions improved only slightly for Sunday’s racing, with the breeze edging towards 20 knots as the races progressed. Turnout in the five classes was remarkably consistent, with four classes containing 10 boats, and the other 8. All classes were given at least two windward legs on the Island shore, and the Cats & Fast Handicap another on the mainland side.

As usual, Robin Leather took an early lead in the Cats and held it to the finish, with Paul Tanner enjoying the heavy conditions to take second, and Mike Martin just pipping Carl Blenkinsop for third after swapping positions throughout.

Martin Scott’s Sprint once again proved unbeatable in a breeze in the Fast Handicap Class, whilst Paul Blowers’ Finn was as equally dominant in the Medium group after Mark Robinson’s Contender had retired at the end of the first round after leading. It was a good day for the Blowers family, with Harry once again leading home the Lasers after a long race which saw Jane Peckham’s Radial relegating Martin Bean into third place. Only 3 of the 10 starters in the Slow Handicap Class finished, with Dan Atherton’s Feva first home, but not by a large enough margin to beat Mike Peddar’s Pico on handicap.

Mike Casson

Results

Wednesday First Series 3

Fast Handicap Class – 1st Graham Deegan & Judith French, 2nd Mike Acton & Jess Olden, 3rd A Holmes & J Gadsey

Medium Handicap Class – 1st Harry Blowers, 2nd Mark Harrison, 3rd James French

Slow Handicap Class – 1st Dan Atherton & James Oxenham.

Sunday Spring Series 5

Catamaran Class – 1st Robin Leather, 2nd Paul Tanner, 3rd Mike Martin

Fast Handicap Class – 1st Martin Scott, 2nd Graham Deegan & Judith French, 3rd Chris Symons

Medium Handicap Class – 1st. Paul Blowers, 2nd James Doig & M Green, 3rd James French

Laser Class – 1st Harry Blowers, 2nd Jane Peckham, 3rd Martin Bean

Slow Handicap Class – 1st Mike Peddar, 2nd Dan Atherton & James Oxenham, 3rd Sam Metcalf.

As part of the RYA’s national Push-The-Boat-Out initiative, we are holding a series of fun sailing events followed by a barbeque on Saturday 18th May.

The aim is to run a series of fun slalom races for Picos, Lasers, Fevas and 400s around high tide. Martin Bean and Judith French will be officiating and the idea (as far as we can understand from Martin’s explanation) is to race downwind gybing through a series of buoys. It will probably be chaos but it will certainly be fun. Anything goes – so feel free to sail single handed, two up or even three up if you like.

The first race will start at 1630 and there is a briefing in the club at 1600.

Steve Cole is running a barbeque from 1900 for all sailors, members, friends and family. Just £5 each to eat.

Come along and join in the fun!

Push the boat out

37 boats competed in the second Wednesday evening in glorious sunny
conditions.

Once again, the light breeze was to the liking of Mark Harrison’s big rig RS100, this time finishing far enough ahead of Paul Blowers’ Finn to take both line and corrected time honours.

Numbers in the Fast group were boosted by six RS400s, with Graham Deegan and Judith French finishing second on the water but first on handicap after early leader Tom Harding had sailed off towards the wrong mark.

The Slow group enjoyed a close tussle throughout, the first three boats finishing within one minute of each other, led home by the Feva of Robin & Thomas Leather.

Paul Tanner took advantage of Robin’s absence from the Cat class, sailing his F16 to a rare victory ahead of the pursuing Shadows.

The sun continued to shine on Sunday morning, enticing a bumper fleet of 50 boats to the start line for the third trophy race of the season. Downwind starts close in to the promenade provided a fine spectacle for those ashore, and plenty of excitement for the competitors at the first mark.

Robin Leather returned to his dominant ways in the Cats, as did Mark Harrison in the Medium group. Elsewhere, there were new faces at the front, with Ben Willows’ RS700 leading home the Fast group, Richard Ellis the Lasers, and Penny Fulford a tightly bunched Slow group.

Results
First Wednesday 2
Cats : 1 Paul Tanner, 2 Carl Blenkinsop, 3 Dave Downer
Fast Handicap : 1 Graham Deegan & Judith French, 2 James Downer & Jon
Price, 3 Keith Hayden
Medium Handicap : 1 Mark Harrison, 2 Paul Blowers, 3 Mike Elsom
Slow Handicap : 1. Robin & Thomas Leather, 2 Sophie Heritage, 3 Ted
Blowers.
Sunday Trophy Race
Cats : t Robin Leather, 2 Laurie Gustar, 3 Paul Tanner
Fast Handicap : 1 Ben Willows, 2 Bob Preston, 3 Graham Deegan & Judith
French
Medium Handicap : 1 Mark Harrison, 2 Ric Newnham, 3 Chris Gillies
Lasers : 1 Richard Ellis, 2 Martin Bean, 3 Adrian Coventry
Slow Handicap : 1 Penny & Jenny Fulford, 2 Alex Paterson, 3 Mike Peddar.

The first evening racing of the season took place on Wednesday in cool and misty conditions. Having lots of sail area was the key to success in the light breeze, with Mark Harrison’s big rig RS100 leading home the medium group but being beaten on handicap by Paul Blowers Finn, and Dan Atherton sailing a club Feva to a convincing win in the slow group.

Not on the leader board, but worthy of a special mention, was young Will Heritage, who managed to complete the course in his tiny Optimist.

Spring Series Race 4 on Sunday was all about East Lepe buoy for the faster classes.

Ben Willows’ RS700 picked the right point to jump off the Gurnard shore across the tide, and made East Lepe at the first pass to finish some 6 minutes ahead on the water. However, this was just not enough to cancel out the RS400’s handicap, as Graham Deegan took the win by a few seconds.

Robin Leather’s Shadow set off across the tide too early in the cats but still made it round East Lepe in the lead. Laurie Gustar closed to within 4 seconds after 2 rounds and a grandstand finish beckoned before Leather struck out with gear problems to gift Gustar a painless win.

The Finn again showed as the weapon of choice in the medium group, rounding East Lepe ahead of Derek Ness’ RS500 and defeating all the RS100s similarly on handicap.

Martin Bean and Chris Hobday had a close finish in the Lasers, but even so were split by fourth finisher Libby Deegan on corrected time.

In an unusually small slow group, Sam Metcalf’s lead on the water was not enough to stay ahead of Kate Gibbs in the results.

Results
Wednesday First Series 1
Cat Handicap : 1 Laurie Gustar, 2 Carl Blenkinsop, 3 Paul Tanner
Fast Handicap : 1 James & Judith French, 2 Keith Hayden, 3 Ben Willows
Medium Handicap : 1 Paul Blowers, 2 Mark Harrison, 3 Rick Newnham
Slow Handicap : 1 Dan Atherton & J Oxenham, 2 Mike Peddar, 3 Kate Gibbs.

Spring Series 4
Cat Handicap : 1 Laurie Gustar, 2 Carl Blenkinsop, 3 Mike Martin
Fast Handicap : 1 Graham Deegan/Judith French, 2 Ben Willows, 3 Humphrey Carter/Will Robinson
Medium Handicap :1 Paul Blowers, 2 Mark Harrison, 3 Derek Ness/Ben Symons
Laser Handicap : 1 Martin Bean, 2 Libby Deegan, 3 Chris Hobday
Slow Handicap : 1 Kate Gibbs, 2 Sam Metcalf/James Oxenham

There were rare but at last proper Spring conditions for last Sunday’s racing in Gurnard Bay – F3 south westerly, sunny and warm – making for some great sailing.

Paul Bowen and Shaun Kellett launched their new B14 to take an immediate lead in the fast group, and despite having to carry out some boom repairs remained in position to win on handicap, followed by Graham Deegan and Steve Cole, who was crewed by stand-in Emma Boxell.

Robin Leather drew out an indecent lead in the cats, leaving Laurie Gustar and Carl Blenkinsop to fight over second place at the last mark after 3 big laps of the Solent.

The medium group and the Lasers were similarly uncontested, with Mark Harrison and Martin Bean cleaning up from the off.

Not so in the final group, where Sophie Heritage and Penny Fulford had a race-long tussle for position on the water, with Penny taking the win on handicap from Mike Peddar and Alex Paterson.

Next week will be race 4 of the Spring Series, with Bean’s Challenge being rescheduled for 18th May.

Results – Spring Series 3
Cat Handicap : 1 Robin Leather, 2 Laurie Gustar, 3 Carl Blenkinsop
Fast Handicap : 1 Paul Bowen/Shaun Kellett, 2 Graham Deegan/Judith
French, 3 Steve Cole/Emma Boxell
Medium Handicap : 1 Mark Harrison, 2 H. Carter/A. Porter, 3 Chris Gillies
Laser Handicap : 1 Martin Bean, 2 Markus Bettum, 3 Libby Deegan
Slow Handicap : 1 Penny Fulford, 2 Mike Peddar, 3 Alex Paterson

The sailing calendar lists Bean’s Challenge (nothing to do with Martin or Simon, we’re told) for Sunday 28th April. This event has now been postponed to later in the year and so there will be normal club racing on Sunday 28th. This will be the next race in the Spring series with the first gun at 1020.

Safety boat cover will be provided this Saturday (27th) from around 2pm to encourage members to take to the water for a free sailing/practice session in their own boats. Come along and polish your skills!

Spring is definately in the air – Wednesday evening sailing starts this week.

The first gun will be at 1820 and we are likely to race four classes (cats, fast,medium and slow) although there is the possibility of separate starts for the Lasers or 400s. Please check the club notice board on the day.

Wednesday evening racing is a great way to take a break in the middle of the busy week and it is also an ideal time for our younger members to have a go at racing. Everyone is welcome so please come along – there will plenty of “old hands” around if you need any help or advice.

With numbers on the water gradually increasing as temperatures finally start to rise, Race Officer Steve Cole was able to provide starts for five handicap classes for the second race of the Spring Series.

The cats were first away, with Laurie Gustar taking an early lead. However, the fickle winds made for tricky conditions and there was much place-changing within the group. Mike Martin was the main loser, seeing his lead vanish as he struggled to get his Shadow moving after rounding the final buoy. Carl Blenkinsop and Gustar were the beneficiaries, taking first and second guns respectively.

The fast group included craft from three different RS classes and one Sprint. Whilst Keith Hayden’s 700 led the fleet home, his lead was not enough to overcome the 400 of Brett Aarons on handicap. Martin Scott did well to take third spot on handicap from Ben Willows’ 700.

The Laser class enjoyed the closest of starts. Ben Symons, who had put his RS500 aside for the day to join the group, took the gun and the win on handicap from Libby Deegan. Julian James was third.

An unusually depleted medium group meant that Commodore Mark Harrison, experimenting in his RS100 with a large sail, had little competition and he won easily on the water and on handicap. James Doig sailed his RS500 well to take second spot ahead of Rick Newnham.

Having swapped his Shadow to sail a Feva with son Thomas in the slow handicap group, Robin Leather found he had made the right decision, as he led home the two 4.7s of Sam Metcalf and James Tomlinson. The huge smile on young Thomas’ face as he came off the water said it all.

Results – Spring Series 2
Cat Handicap : 1 Carl Blenkinsop, 2 Laurie Gustar, 3 Mike Martin
Fast Handicap : 1 Brett Aarons/Robbie Southwell, 2 Keith Hayden, 3 Martin Scott
Medium Handicap : 1 Mark Harrison, 2 James Doig/Matt Green, 3 Rick Newnham
Laser Handicap : 1 Ben Symons, 2 Libby Deegan, 3 Julian James
Slow Handicap : 1 Robin and Thomas Leather, 2 Sam Metcalf, 3 James Tomlinson