Sutton Bingham sailors support the Lifeboats
by Chris Jones 8 Nov 2016 14:50 GMT
6 November 2016
Sailing action at the Sutton Bingham RNLI event © Chris Jones
On Sunday 6 November Sutton Bingham held their annual fundraising event for the local branch of the RNLI. As has become tradition representatives from the RNLI set up stall in the clubhouse with an array of branded gifts, calendars and Christmas cards.
Sailors entered the two race event by way of a donation and vouchers purchased by the club were awarded as prizes to be spent on the selection of goodies.
The morning race attracted 16 entries, with a wide variety of sailing dinghies racing for honours. The strong northerly breeze forecast didn't materialise and a fitful westerly punctuated with gusts and equally pronounced lulls gave competitors plenty to think about. The race was won by Howard Freer in his Streaker, 29 seconds ahead on corrected time once handicaps were calculated, ahead of Adrian Neal in his Supernova and third placed Chris Bottomley sailing a D-Zero.
The main event, a pursuit race for the RNLI Shield, was held in the afternoon. In this race format the slower boats start first and are pursued by faster classes of boat. Max Robertson in his RS Tera set off first but was hampered by particularly light winds and was soon "hunted" down by the pursuing fleet including Frear, the Lasers of Rob Jamieson and Mervyn Clark and Neal in the Supernova. By the finish of the 75 minute race Frear had secured the lead and first place overall, with Richard Cumberbatch, last to start in his Phantom dinghy moving progressively through the fleet to take second and Jamieson keeping ahead of Neal for third place from 18 competitors.
The event raised over £225 to support the great work of carried out by the RNLI to save lives at sea.
Overall Results: (top 5)
RNLI Handicap Race
1st - Howard Frear, Streaker
2nd - Adrian Neal, Supernova
3rd - Chris Bottomley, D-Zero
4th - Pete Barnstable, Blaze
5th - Kelsey Green, Laser Radial
RNLI Pursuit Race
1st - Howard Frear, Streaker
2nd - Richard Cumberbatch, Phantom
3rd - Rob Jamieson, Laser
4th - Adrian Neal, Supernova
5th - Mervyn Clark, Laser