Easter Egg Trophy

The force 2 to 3 gusting 4 NEE wind gave excellent sailing for the Easter Egg races. Due to the cold conditions the races were short and the after noon races were run back to back to help give time for evaluation of the results for prize giving.

We were delighted to see Malcolm Edwards, our commodore from the early 90s who now lives in Australia, and Allan Tolfree who lives in Gosport. We also had a visit from a Hawker friend Roy Melsom.

The afternoon races were full of incidences. Before the start Keith Hatton capsized the Laser and then was dumped right in when it went over the other way during the recovery. Tony and Barbara Allen retired after their goose neck broke. Malcolm probably regrets borrowing a Laser because the toe strap broke tipping him in in his normal clothes; rather colder than Australia.

By the third race it was a bit windier. The water level was a bit low and before the start Richard Cannon went aground at the far side and only just managed to get away from the bank before the start. At the top gybe mark Richard manage get his arm in the way of the boom as it came over which left an extremely painful bruise.

Near the first mark Keith Hatton was dragged through the water when there was a negative gust and by the time he had recovered he was jammed between a cruiser and it’s mooring post. Near the same place on the next lap he was hit by a strong positive gust and he accelerated well out of control, unfortunately a narrow boat was approaching and, although it went full astern, it collided with Keith as he managed to tack away from the bank and Keith got tangled up with it’s bow; fortunately there wasn’t any damage.

On the last lap Richard had the boom pull off goose neck of his Signet and when a sudden very strong gust hit them while on the run he and Anita Gregg capsized without knowing what had happened; they fully submerged and neither were wearing waterproof gear. Richard couldn’t right the Signet and Keith dumped his Laser and swum over to help. Only two boats finished the race.

Somehow Pat Halling manage to fall in off the Laser while it was moored at the bank.

Unusually in all races there were identical results for personal and boat handicap. Graham Thompson was the winner with 3 different crew (Rodger Wheeler, Anita Gregg and Joan Courney) and Richard was 2nd with Liz Archer and Anita Gregg as crew; it was certainly a day when a crew was needed. Roy presented the Easter Egg prizes for Richard.