After the recent busy week of the UK Fireball Nationals held at Penzance last week, the club was full of the regular old faces and some new ones, as the home races kicked off again.
23 Dinghies of all classes took to the bay, and were treated to a pleasant 5 laps of starboard hand racing, (some just sailing for pleasure), with a steady F2 Northerly staying in for most of the duration.
As usual, the handicap fleet were first away, with Kian Andrews’ D Zero staying ahead of the others for the win, with 3 Solos and the RS 200 and 400 in hot pursuit. Ben Deighton was single handing his 400 with relative ease, but came in early avoiding the eventual tough windless beat back to the slip. This left the RS200’s helm Jeremy Gilbert and Crew Bern Irwin to collect 2nd, with Steve Patten’s Solo coming home 3rd, being followed by the Solo’s of Duncan Jones and Martyn Curnow.
Only 2 Enterprises took to the water, the first boat away and home was that of John Matthews with Crew Di Stephens. They led from start to finish, presumably still on the high of attending the Enterprise Nationals at Exmouth last week, and while they were there, they won the Bronze Fleet and came home in an excellent 26th place overall, well done to them. The 2nd boat home this evening was that of Dean Mooney’s, which was being crewed by Jeremy Williams, who was probably glad of the gentle conditions. Unfortunately Jeremy had an early retirement at the Enterprise Nationals. In that event, Jeremy with Crew Lloyd Williams, were one of a number of boats caught out by some rogue waves on their way back to the beach, and in their case causing an unrecoverable capsize resulting in the boat rolling onto a sandbank, which saw the mast go through the deck and become permanently damaged. Thankfully, they made it to the finish tonight!
4 Lasers set off, with Brian Auldgate taking the honours, leaving the ladies behind on a mixture of sail sizes, with Clare Edkins leading Sally Booth and Sarah Van horn to the line.
The Mirrors had a close race with Sebi Schmidt leading off the line, and by the end of the first lap he and crew Roisin Mooney, found themselves in 4th and last, with Colin Stephens and his son Luke in the lead, Lloyd Williams single handing in 2nd and Eric Taylor with Aoife Mooney in 3rd. As they continued further into the race, Sebi was dropping back from the others, and by the last leg the wind was dying with holes all over the course. Colin and Luke ended up in one, and were overhauled by both Lloyd and Eric to end up 3rd. Colin must have found the Mirrors a bit slow after he and crew Tom Kliskey represented the home club in the Fireball Nationals at PZ last week. Colin helmed the Fireball and Tom to an impressive win in the Silver fleet, using a borrowed boat that needed cutting out from an overgrown garden!
Others enjoying the evening were our instructors testing the recently refurbished club Lark, and 4 of our new trainees in the club Picos, with 2 actually completing their first ever races and sailing very well. Quite an achievement as they had never helmed a dinghy before May. Well Done to Dexter, Sennen, Simon and Martha.
