SigneT Open at Little Paxton

Only one Aquarius SigneT's (ST's 368) attended this first open of the year. Little Paxton is located just off the A1 at St.Neots in an old gravel pit. It's quite a picturesque place with a couple of islands out in the middle of the lake and a line of tall trees screening it from the main road which makes for some interesting wind shifts. We have been going to Paxton for more years than I care to remember and we always received a warm welcome whenever we go up there and we usually have good weather.

But this year it rained throughout the journey there although it was such fine rain at times I wasn’t sure if it was rain. Robert Britton crewed for me; we don’t see him at AQSC now because he lives at Grantham North of Peterborough.

By the time we started the first race it was raining hard with was very little wind and we only did 2 laps instead of the scheduled 6. The first afternoon race was just as wet but there was more wind so we managed 6 laps. Richard was shivering so much with the cold that he couldn’t sugar his coffee. The last race was much better with a reasonable wind and no rain. Richard won the first 2 races and was 2nd in the last one.

On Sunday PLSC were hosting the Branta cup event, rather like our Mid Thames Trophy, for the first time. There were 2 massive trophies, about 400mmhigh, with one for the morning race and one for the afternoon race, Richard wasn’t eligible for a trophy because you had to be a member of a local club. There were rumours that there could be 50 boats which would have made it very crowded but we only had 18.

Conditions were much better than Saturday and it remained dry. Richard let young Tom Field helm the first race to gain practice for the Signet Nationals. Richard took Tom’s crew out for the 2nd race. At one point something went wrong and they capsized with both going right in. At least it was capsize training for Tom’s crew.

Richard Cannon