Club Championships at Elton Sailing Club

Elton Sailing Club staged their annual Club Championships over the weekend and whilst enjoying the uncharacteristic late autumn sunshine the winds were both light and fickle. However the Race Team for the event, Malcom Edge and the event organiser Ray Cumley did an absolutley magnificent job in what were to prove testing and difficult conditions. The format for the weekend was to be three races Saturday starting with a pursuit race followed by two handicap races and three races on Sunday starting with two handicap races and a pursuit race to finish.

With 32 sailors crewing 24 dinghies racing got under way at 12.30 on Saturday in a fickle and light breeze with the Topper of Anne Stevenson (with a V and not a PH) setting the early pace followed by the Streaker, Enterprise, Solos and Lasers.Shortly after the Lasers the Albacores took flight with the Phantom and RS 400s following. The boat on the early pace was the Laser of Dave Gamble who steadily picked his way through the fleet to eventually hit the front after three laps. After a faltering start due to the race Officer missing the start button the Phantom of Mike Seger came through the fleet to challenge the lead laser for the honours but after a 10 minute tacking dual the laser managed to maintain the lead and so took the win for the first Pursuit. with Seger 2nd and Darren and Joe Nield in 3rd and Eddie and Jane brooks in 4th.

Race Two saw the wind increase slightly and with a new course the first of the handicap races got under way with the RS 400 of Dave Read and Joy Shaw reaching the windward mark first with Seger in the Phantom close on their transom.The rest of the fleet were enjoying their own tactical battles with many place changes and a lot of shouting at the marks (they know who they are!). Meanwhile at the front the RS and Phantom were having a good race with the Phantom winning the downwind gybing contest coming out in the lead which was to be maintained until the finish.Darren and Joe Nield came over the line in 2nd followed by Peter Finney Laser in 3rd.

Race Three started in similar wind conditions and the fleet got under way with yet another well behaved and clean start apart from Seger who decided to go for an untimely swim, apparently to cool off, with 10 seconds to go. After righting the Phantom which was by then adorned with an abundance of underwater plantlife all he could do was follow the fleet round and watch whilst the Enterprise of Geoff Mc Clardy and Dave Wood took the honours followed over in 2nd place by Dave Gamble Laser.and Peter Finney Laser in 3rd.

Sunday greeted the sailors with little or no wind for the 11am start but without hesitation the race team set a course and racing started on time in more or less flat calm conditions. It was obvious from the start that the Albacores and Spinnaker boats were going to be best advantaged by the conditons and they duly took an early lead over the fleet many of whom struggled to maintain any forward movement at all. After an hour and only one lap completed six boats managed to finsh with the rest of the 24 strong fleet out of time and thus scored DNF.

After a very lengthy lunch and much debate over what to do next it was decided to run race 5 in what little wind there was and once again this turned into a drifter of farsical proportions.Race 6 was due to be a pursuit race but due to the conditions the meeting was declared over with 5 races sailed and one disgard to take into account.

Overall Results: (5 races, 1 discard)

Gold Fleet
1st Darren / Joe / Cathy Nield, Albacore
2nd Mike Seger, Phantom
3rd Eddie / Jane Brooks, Albacore
4th Peter Finney, Laser
5th Dave Gamble, Laser

Silver Fleet
1st Dave Read / Joy Shaw, RS400
2nd Tim Craig / Paul Salmon, RS400
3rd Malcom Jones, Solo

Many thanks for all the help and support given by the race and rescue teams and to all the galley staff who catered over the weekend. A special thanks must go to Ray Cumley who took onboard the task of organising this year's Championships at the expense of sailing in them himself and for taking on the onerous duty of splitting the fleet into Gold and Silver fleets for this weekend, never an easy task!