The first race was sausages and triangles. Twenty boats in all down to the first mark I could not get passed the boats in front as they were a line abreast. Then at the mark there was chaos and the boat in front snagged the mark, sunk it and stopped dead in the water. After SunseT took evasive action there was no mark to be seen. Having now stalled in the stream Sunset was washed down the river, now not visually, having rounded the mark. So back we went and for all to see us make the rounding.

The rest of the race went well for Sunset and I could see we were in front of many that should have been in front of us on handicap. June was a bit behind us and seemed to take the longer triangle route instead of a sausage but I think met the rounding of the marks necessary but delayed their progress further to the finishing line; it was very difficult to remember if you had just done a triangle or sausage.

The second and third race courses were transformed into a port hand triangle and the faster boats started first so it would be less crowded. SunseT did well in the second race also. We believe that June was in front of SunseT but when the final results were published this was not reflected.

After a cold, wet, shifty, gusty day, the saving grace of which was that, it got slightly better as the day went on. Needless to say, it pored down while we were packing the boats away.

Bryan had gone back to the Clubhouse to the prize giving and collected a bottle of wine and some chocolate on behalf of SunseT. Sunset had made a 2nd, 1st and 9th thus when discarding one race and according to the official results we had scored 1st overall for the day on handicap.

Mid-Thames Trophy 28 April 2012 Updated 1May2012
John Panting

This year the MTT was to be held at Desborough SC. It very nearly wasn't I fear. The spell of heavy rain had resulted in water flooding over the pontoons the previous day - but the water had subsided. A slippery mud deposit had settled on the pontoons making launching precarious under foot and muddy in the boat.

Fortunately at Desborough the flood water finds it easier to go down Desborough Cut which reduces the current at the club; at the jetty an eddie caused an upstream flow. Also the the NE wind meant that going upstream was a run. We probably couldn’t have made headway if it had been a beat.

Brenda and I arrived with SunseT ST924 straight from home. Richard Cannon and Mike Hendra arrived with June ST368. Graham Thompson who had ferried Bryan down by road followed.

Bryan had planned to tow several boats up the river from Aquarius but that flood of water coming down the Thames scuppered the idea. However, his arrival was welcomed by me and he was soon enlisted as a willing crew for SunseT.

Three races - best two to count. Aquarius hadn’t managed the minimum number of boats, namely three to be eligible for the MTT. Sad. There was still a prize to be had for the best individual boat on Handicap.

Unusually there were running starts so starters didn’t drift over the line. It was very cold and wet; the force 1-2 gust 3 wind was very patchy and there were great differences in the speed of nearby boats. The afternoon races were warmer with more wind.