Wanderer Open at Sutton Bingham Sailing Club

Wanderers at Sutton Bingham © SBSC

A total of six boats contested the two day meeting at the small and friendly Sutton Bingham Sailing Club in Somerset over the weekend of the 5th and 6th of May.

Gathering at the club to rig on the Saturday morning were 4 club boats and the first of two travelling boats, crewed by David Guy and Sally Gilbert (Husband and usual crewmate Colin was away in New Zealand so Sally jumped ship to get some sailing!). The second travelling boat, crewed by Mike Hamilton and David Oats was only able to join us on the Sunday. Some rig tweaking was done with tension meters and tape measures before launching to make sure we all had the best rig set ups using the guidance from the technical section of the WCOA website.

Saturday's winds were reasonably strong, gusty and a bit flukey, though nothing like the strength seen at this event in 2011, the temperatures were low and skies overcast – but the rain held off. 2 races were sailed in the afternoon.

Race 1 saw W1546 (Nigel Leveridge and Wendy Jackson) harrying W1038 (Tim and Niamh Robertson) for the lead, gaining on the beats but losing ground again to the lighter crew on the runs and reaches, closely followed by W1611 (Alan Chinn and Alistair Goldsmith) with a scrap for the line between W635 (David Guy and Sally Gilbert) and W1317 (Adrian O'Neill and Marcus Hindley) turning out to be irrelevant as W635 forgot in all the excitement to do her turns after touching a buoy earlier in the race.

Race two again saw W1546 following W1038 closely throughout, pursued by W1611, with W635 this time getting the better of steel centre plated W1317 at the line, no doubt helped by sailing race #2 with her rudder fully down.

Saturday was rounded off with a hearty BBQ and natter at the club once the boats were put to bed.

Sunday dawned brighter, with sunshine and initially at least a better, more steady, breeze.

W992 joined the fun (Mike Hamilton and David Oats) and immediately stamped her authority on the day winning both the first two races (not flying her spinnaker), making best use of a favourable shift to lay the finish line straight from the leeward mark in the first race of the day and pipping W1038 at the line by about a foot, pointing higher and sailing faster on the beats in the good breeze, staying with W1038 and W1546 despite their spinnakers on the runs/reaches throughout the day – Mike and David had definitely got their boat set up and tactics sorted in the good breeze. Mark Talbot joined W1317 as helm for the morning race and pipped W635 for 5th but W1317 was unable to compete further in the afternoon as her crew both decided to try their hand in a Kestrel instead!

In the two afternoon races results initially followed the pattern of the morning race, with W992 getting the better of W1038 and W1546 (who dropped a long way back after tangling at the windward mark on the last lap) in a variable breeze, however for the final race the wind fell very light indeed and once the race officers were able to get the fleet away W1038 was able to take advantage of her lighter crew over the short figure of eight course and the single very slow lap to drift through the fleet and take a last win ahead of W992. W1546 dropped behind W1611 in the very light conditions, with W635 coming in 5th – suffering from leaky bailers making for a wet and heavy boat that didn't help in the very light breezes.

In summary, a fun weekend of sailing with the much friendlier weather conditions this year matching the warm welcome of the club and usual Wanderer bonhomie.

Overall Results: