AQSC at the Signet National Championships 25-31Jul99
Richard Cannon

THE
MAINSHEET
Autumn 1999
Contents

Members had a very enjoyable and successful week at the Chichester YC (CYC) sailing opposite the excellent CYC Clubhouse in the East fork of the Chichester Harbour complex. The weather was superb; hot and sunny but with ideal winds all week. The event was combined with the CYC Junior Family Week.

The Signet is very much a family class, with up to three generations of a family sailing, and ages ranged from 7 to 70. All the Aquarius members were sailing with youngsters and ten competitors were under 16.

Six Aquarius members took part. Laurie Bridges was crewed by Aquarius junior Robert Britton, Richard Cannon by Mark Cowling (grand son of a ST helm), Keith Hatton by Tom Field (grand son of the SCOA Class Captain), Mark Hollamby by Caroline Wiltshire (University flatmate), and Graham Thompson crewed for Michael Overs (son of a ST helm). Graham also brought his Bosun for a bit of cruising. Sailing was fairly easy, with triangle courses, as the currents were low and the sea flat even when the winds were strong.

The Practice Race on Sunday had the lightest wind of the week, NE force 1; Richard had mixed feelings winning. Monday to Wednesday were very different with a steady NE force 5 wind; it looked as if it would be survival sailing but it proved to be easier than expected and very enjoyable. Mark won the Monday and Wednesday Morning races (Tuesday was a day off). The wind dropped to force 3 to 4 for the Wednesday afternoon, Thursday and Friday races; the lighter winds suited Richard who won the rest of the races giving him the Championship decided by a tiebreak with Mark.

1 Commodore's Bit
2 Annual Dinner
3 Working Party
4 Sunbury Regatta
5 Signet Championships
6 Topper Adventures
7 Solent '99
8 Solent 99 page 2
9 Children’s Activity Day
10 Bewl Visit
11 Sailing Report
12 Eclipse Cruise
13 Hampton Riverside
14 Hampton Riverside p 2
15 Cundy Race
16 The Internet
17 Raffle Donations
17 The Club Geny Missing
17 Hail & Farewell
18 AGM & Prize Giving
19 Dates For Your Diary

Graham and Robert did an exceptional amount of cruising in the Bosun; on Thursday they cruised both before and after the two races to total 12 hours sailing, and then they left the camp site at 7:30am on Friday for another cruise before the last two races. The last race was for sailing single-handed and Robert did very well to complete the race in Laurie's Signet.