Sailing Secretary Report

Sailing Secretary Report - Richard Cannon

Easter was early this year so the sailing season started with the Easter Egg Trophy on the 27 March. We were fortunate there was no current although the NE wind was rather light for the afternoon race; we managed to fit in four short races. Although there were only 5 boats out racing was very close; there were 3 ties in the Boat Handicap results and 4 in the Personal Handicap results.
The big event of the year was hosting the Mid Thames interclub event on 30 April for the first time. It was a very fine day but the wind was rather light and patchy especially in the afternoon. If we had had much more wind it would have been very difficult to have a single start with the 19 boat entry. There was a slight current and this gave a big advantage to the faster boats like the Merlin and Enterprise of Hampton SC which managed 2 laps before many boats had done one lap. Hampton SC won and Aquarius were 2nd. Apart from the light wind it was a highly successful event.

The open days on 15-16 May were hot and fine although a rather light wind; there was enough wind to give quite a large number of visitors a reasonable sail. We gained a few new members.
The Regatta on 18-19 June had very fine days but the wind was very variable and fluky; much better for the Jazz/BBQ evening than for sailing. Unusually all the boats had a lady helm for the Ladies/Novice race.
The Hampton SC Regatta on 25-26 June had perfect weather with a 5 to 10 knt wind straight up the reach giving excellent sailing. Richard Cannon won the Handicap Class and Charles Dennis was 2nd Laser.
From July on there have been a lot of poor sailing days with light and very fluky winds. The visit to Bewl on 29 August was an exception where there were about perfect sailing conditions; hot and sunny with an 8 to 12 knot wind. Very different from the Late Spring Bank Holiday visit when it was cold, wet and no wind.
There were Signet open meetings at Paxton Lakes, Grafham Water, Fishers Green and Ferry Meadows, and the Signet Nationals at Ullswater. Richard Cannon, Mike Baker, Keith Hatton, Michael Stevens and Robert Briton supported these events with excellent results. All the meetings other than Paxton , the first one, had excellent sailing conditions.
Richard won the first 6 races for the Signet Senior Points Trophy so let Michael helm his Signet ST368 for the last two Open meetings. Robert Britton crewed for Michael in the last meeting at Ferry Meadows. Michael did excellently to win two races and come 2nd in the 3rd race, which Mike Baker won with Keith Hatton as crew. Michael would have won the Novice Points Trophy but winning Ferry Meadows made him ineligible. Richard won the Signet Nationals, with Robert Britton crewing.
The Aquarius Spring and Summer series have been completed; Charles Dennis won the the Spring series on Boat Handicap and Graham Thompson won on Personal Handicap. Graham Thompson won the Summer series both on Boat and Personal Handicap.