admin Date , April 26, 2025 Sailing Previous Blog Open Day Comments (0)
This was my first race running the box, and my special thanks go to Sarah Collen for my excellent training, and to Peter Brewer and Ralf Garland, who supported me throughout the day, adding their pearls of wisdom to help me run the Box.
By lunchtime, the Bar was ready with Helen in charge, and Sarah was in the kitchen ready with her first Sunday lunches of the year. They are very much recommended, so I suggest you try some. As a bonus, there were some Vanilla Slices.
Teams started to arrive and by 1:50pm, Carina was ready for her first race of the season, Helmed by Dan with Simon on the jib. The sun was out, and the occasional breeze was warm and light. For much of the morning the anemometer had barely moved but now an occasional force 1 was blowing from many directions.
The Fun sailing in the morning was a bit disappointing as no one turned up, the Team L had everything ready to go.
At 2pm the two14ft boats started and began strongly as the breeze increased slightly with Chris and Sonya Rathbone taking an early lead over Guy Jacobs and Lyla.
The rest of the boats including, Andrew in his Lightning took off in pursuit at 2:10pm by which time the wind had died and Constable would had time to paint the scene.
The race was 6 laps from the home marker to the Long Mark just above the sewage outlet at ¾ of a mile. The Rater made the mark in just 25 minutes with a faster return on the downstream leg.
The two national 12’s had a very exciting race with the lead changing several times around the Long mark. Tre and his brother finished first. After a very long and challenging race.
The safety boat with Philip and Paul rescued a Zest from the marina, allowing Philip to show his skills of towing a boat alongside the Safety Boat.
Our illustrious Commodore helped the Rater by drilling a couple of holes in the new Rater pontoon so that it would lower just a bit more to allow the Rater to be recovered. He went down to near wellie depth. He also placed the magnificent boat model “Invader” in the club. It is well worth looking at.
All the competitors successfully completed the 9-mile race although Peter's counting of the laps may have been over enthusiastic.
