Jubilee Weekend Sailing
Published 21:32 on 6 Jun 2022
Sailing Away for the Jubilee
The weekend saw something a bit different at the club to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Saturday was our all-classes pursuit race which allowed dinghies and cruisers of all shapes and sizes to compete together on the same racetrack. The race management team of Kev and Helen did a sterling job managing the start times, radios transmissions, requests for timings from boats on the water, before taking finishing positions once the 90 minutes were up. Despite starting last, Billy Maughan in his Musto Skiff almost managed to reel in the whole fleet but couldn't quite catch Luke McGill sailing a great race out in front in his Aero. Further down the track, at the final whistle, the boats in 3rd down to 7th finished within boat lengths of each other to make for some close racing and tense final minutes. It was great to see so many boats all out racing together and there were lots of positive comments in the bar afterwards.
Sunday saw a second white sail regatta. The aim of sailing white sails is not to dumb down racing but to offer a less intense form of racing to encourage participation. It was great to overhear conversations in the galley beforehand with seasoned racing helms encouraging others and passing on tips. On the water the racing was run by several members who gave up a day's racing to run the regatta and offer coaching, so many thanks go to Ken Ward, Dave Addison, Olivia Arkle, David Wheldon, Mike Wilson and special thanks to Jimmy Carter who stepped in as an honorary member of the all female boat when we lost a crew member (not literally!!).
On the water there were some great results and a whole range of firsts. Hocus Pocus took victory in the first race with Gordon handing his boat over to his crew and clearly providing top class tactical advice. I took the club 707 with a crew completely new to sports boats and racing who made continual improvements throughout the day. Both Sham and Scaramouche put in consistent performances throughout the day to come in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Overall winners were Jonathon Addison (10) and Isobel Arkle (11) who shared the helm of Still Game and if you're still smarting over being beaten by the kids, at least you don't have to live with them!
The prize for the most improved boat went to Growler who took on board all the coaching on offer to improve their racing through the day.
Thank you to all who participated over the weekend supporting the event and especially all those involved in the organisation. Any feedback on the event or ideas of any other events you would like to see please let me know so this can inform the way our sailing program develops.
Hope to see you out on the water again soon.
Liz
Race Results
Last updated 21:43 on 6 November 2023
