Kestrel Open at Goldhanger Sailing Club

A view from the front and back!

Goldhanger Sailing Club saw ten Kestrels turn out for this season's open and were greeted by the famous Goldhanger breakfast with refillable toast to kick things off!

The first race was scheduled for 12 o'clock on the Saturday, with the two races running back to back, as there is limited time on the water, due to Goldhanger SC being located up one the creeks of the Blackwater.

Myself and my crew had not been in our Kestrel since Oct 2012 due to the floor of our Kestrel eventually giving way, this is not really surprising when I think how much punishment we have given her over the 6 years we have owned Golddigger.

We have fallen out of her, fallen back into, jumped on. climbed in and out of her, all at different speeds, turned her upside down and jumped of her, stamped with frustration and joy on her, oh that floor took some punishment!

So our Kestrel went off to Hartley Boats for a floor refurbishment and has come back looking great and in the first race to the first mark seemed to be very fast!

Yes the first race we found ourselves first to the windward mark, all be it a fetch due to the wind direction, but first all the same!

In hindsight I feel I got a little carried away and maybe should of slowed a tad, because as we came around the mark we jibed, but didn't need to as we never got the direction of the next mark quite right, everyone else opened and within a blink of an eye we were third or fourth along the first rolling spinnaker leg.

The breeze for the first two races was around a 4, with gusts, that shifted due to the large clouds and large holes in the clouds, which made the beats very tactical, the front runners were Henry and Chris in their new Kestrel 1627 Liam and Ali in 1551 and John and Olive in 1537, in fact the whole fleet were close and the racing was good all the way through the fleet with Steven and Lyn 1545 & Graham and Tim 1549 close and fighting for the top spots.

Race one was won by Henry and Chris and Race two was won by Liam and Ali, we in 1544 managed a 7th after our great start we lost and gained ground to who would end up our rivals for the weekend, Rod and Jenny in 1573, Ian and Alan in 1553 and Philip and Suzanna in 1488.

If I remember correctly we managed to gain two places in the last beat quite close to the line in the first race, this was the order of the day really with places being swapped in all areas of the fleet.

We came off the water and enjoyed the Goldhanger hospitality and a lovely meal courtesy of the members of the club, the same members that served breakfast, lunch and helped with race control and rescue, so many thanks to all of them and Keith our Race Officer.

Day Two saw a little less wind and it was a lot cooler, we launched around the same time with again the same format of two races back to back and all to fight for as the top places were close, Henry and Chris were over the line in race one with Liam and Ali winning and Graham and Tim in 1549 picking up Second with John and Olive in third again!

So had Henry and Chris blown their chances of the first Goldhanger crew to win the open held there?

They managed a win in the last race of the weekend, with John & Olive in Second and Liam & Ali in third, this tied the top spot, but with the last result as the decider the Goldhanger boys took the overall win.

Congratulations to Jeremy in 1510 who sailed with Rene whom he had not sailed with before in anger, they went very well over the weekend grabbing a forth in the third race.

Also to Ian in 1553 who sailed with Alan a Goldhanger member, they had not met before the open and sailed well all weekend, getting faster with each race and getting a sixth in the third race.

Overall Results:

1st 1627, Henry and Chris Richards, 1 2 Dis 1, 4pts
2nd 1551, Liam PIke / Al Luxford, 2 1 1 3, 4pts
3rd 1537, John and Olive Glasspool, 3 3 3 2, 8pts
4th 1549, Graham Richmond, 4 6 2 4, 10pts
5th 1545, Steve and Lin Worf, 5 4 5 5, 14pts
6th 1510, Jeremy Drummond / Rene Knikker Troke, 6 8 4 6, 16pts
7th 1573, Rod and Jenny Brown-Lee, 8 5 8 8, 21pts
8th 1544, Kevin Edwins / Kevin Jones, 7 7 7 9, 21pts
9th 1553, Ian Rintoul / Alan Bourne, 9 9 6 7, 22pts
10th 1488, Philip and Suzanah Trevelyan, Dnf Dns 9 Dnf, 31pts

Next event Medway regatta on July 13th & 14th July.