Comet Open at Up River Yacht Club

Comets start racing at Up River © Derek Dodd

Comets on the plane at Up River © Derek Dodd

Six visiting boats joined the single local boat for a day of excitement in rather windy conditions on the upper part of the River Crouch.

For the first race the committee set a short up wind, down wind course. As the wind built before the start Henry Jaggers sensibly didn't launch, while Clive Chapman capsized and after tasting the River Crouch decided he'd had enough for the day. John Sturgeon was going well, including a brief period in the lead, until a capsize resulted in entanglement with a moored boat and retirement. Andy Dale from Eyott Sailing Club lead the middle part of race, until repeated failed attempts to safely round the up wind mark without gybing put him back to 3rd, allowing Bob Dodds to take the lead which he held to the finish. When Michael Ettershank also had problems at the upwind mark Andy Dale slipped back into 2nd. John Coppenhall gently sailed his boat round the course into a 4th position.

Towards the end of the race the windy built heavily and with the safety boats being too busy to provide a lead boat for the second race the fleet came ashore for a break. With racing taking longer then planned with so many capsizes in both the Comet fleet and Lightning's, who where also running an open, it was decided to reduce the meeting to 2 races from the planned 3.

The second race started in similar conditions to the first with this time only Andy, Michael, Bob and John Coppenhall lining up for the start. With the course set in different part of river the race officer took the option of including some blistering reaches much to everyone's enjoyment. This time Michael had a slight lead off the start but was quickly overtaken by Andy during the first beat against the ebbing tide. Unfamiliarity with the local conditions lead both John and Bob to fall back someway at this point but that didn't last. As the race wore on Michael fell in multiple times and Bob soon overtook to place himself in second. When John capsized at a gybe mark this caused some panic for Michael and Bob, who now had to gybe into a rather small space between the top of John's mast and the mark.

With no-one showing any sign of getting near Andy, he crossed the line to win the race and the event, followed by Bob in 2nd, Michael in 3rd and lastly John.

Overall Results: