Sunset Takes To Water

Sunset Takes To The Water

After months of painstaking work John Panting finally brought ST924 (Sunset) to AQSC on Sunday 25 April for her launching. John’s wife Brenda bought the SigneT self build kit from Fyne Boats as a surprise 60th birthday present and John’s trials and tribulations putting it together has been reported in past newsletters.

There was a lot of interest from members as Sunset was rigged. Brenda told me that despite protests from their family John had requested that they stay away from the initial launch as there would be a lot to do. I’m sure however they will be down to Aquarius very shortly to inspect Dad’s handy work. In the event Sunset floated off her launch trolley and after a couple of minutes was declared bone dry, not a leak to be seen. John’s smiles grew even broader.

With Richard Cannon as crew John then took ST924 out for her initial sail. In the afternoon Richard helmed and John crewed in ST924’s first race. There are a couple of pictures of this auspicious event somewhere in this edition. On his return John declared himself well satisfied with the boat although I think Richard may well have suggested ‘a few’ tweaks and changes.

Congratulations to John for seeing his project through and to Brenda for choosing such a splendid dinghy in the first place (okay I’m a little biased). We expect to see quite a bit of John and ST924 on the water at Aquarius from now on, in addition to the SIgneT class opens which I know he’s also keen to attend.

Mike (Over Easy) Baker