Club Week at Blackwater Sailing Club
by Paul Trueman 20 Aug 2012 07:57 BST
13-18 August 2012
Over 160 boats competed in Blackwater SC's annual club week. The noticeable trend this year was the return of large fleets in a number of the one design fleets at the expense of the handicap fleets. The first 2 days were light wind affairs followed by 3 days of F5/6 with a return to a perfect F3 and hot sunshine for the final Saturday.
Martin Scarth and Tony King were clear winners of the 13 strong Fireball fleet to win the week with 4 race wins discarding their only 2nd place. The 25 strong Laser fleet was the largest at the club for a number of years, Jack Mills and John Crook were both in contention for the series which Jack eventually secured with a win on the final race.
The Wayfarer fleet grew in number as the week progressed with 14 boats competing at some stage. Regular previous winners Paul Trueman and Mike Pearce had not raced each other in Club week for a number of years. This year Mike & Daniel Pearce had the edge to take the trophy with 3 wins in the week to Paul & Marc's 2 wins.
The classic Sprite dinghy class saw a turnout of 7 boats. Bevis Wright was the eventual winner after a good tussle with 2nd place Alan Jackson & Julia Bourn. The most competitive class was the Topper fleet which had 33 entries in the week, 3 boats shared the race wins in this class with Harley Swann and Tom Harmer both finishing the week on equal points however overall victory went to Harley who had two 1st places to Tom's single race win.
Lucy Bettley and Theo Brown were the prize winners in the small Mirror fleet from Oscar Dyer and Ben Stewart. Beth Segura was victorious in the small Optimist fleet.
In the dinghy handicap classes, the fast handicap was won by Phil Newman in his K6 crewed by Vince Brown. In the medium handicap the stronger winds of the middle of the week suited the 420's and Tom Johnson crewed by Tom Segura were the winners in this 20 strong fleet from the Phantom of Scott Jaycock.
In the cruiser classes, again the heavier winds mid week suited Joe Leary's First 29 "Breezy" helmed by John Dyer whose 2nd place on the final Saturday was just enough to secure the Lewis Hicks Cup for the fast cruisers from Mick Sargeant's Sonata "F Flat" who won on the lighter wind days but struggled in the stronger breezes. The white sail cruiser class was won with a day to spare by Jeremy Alhadeff's First 21.7 "Aixa" from Paul Su's Sun 2000 "Sea Urchin".
There were the usual social events after racing, particularly popular were the Quiz night on Thursday and the Commodore's paella evening on Friday. The week finished with a BBQ and disco on the Saturday night.
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