St Brides Spa Hotel Coppet Week at Saundersfoot Sailing Club
by Mick Lightwood 1 Jun 2015 09:49 BST
24-29 May 2015
Saundersfoot is a gem on the Pembrokeshire coastline which attracts sailors year after year to return and join in some great racing with friends and colleagues from many previous years events. There is a great friendly rivalry on the beach as competitors turn up to start the racing with their boats from over 24 different classes and this year attracted 75 entries from 23 clubs around the country.
With all the boats out, there were 110 helms and crew on the water which were supported by a volunteer crew from Saundersfoot SC and Tenby SC of approx 30 people per day to make this event happen.
The St Brides Spa Hotel Coppet Week racing started on Sunday 24th with one race per day and finished on Friday 29th, without exception this year the weather has been fantastic with sunshine and winds to suit all skill levels out on the circuit. The spectacle of many spinnakers in all sorts of colours looked fabulous from the beach and must have raised a few eyebrows looking out at all those boats jostling around the start line for best position.
The club is lucky to have people experienced in all sorts of skills to make an event like this happen but there are not many willing to volunteer for the job of OOD which this year was performed by John Griffiths and his team out on Elgar looking resplendent with all its flags and polished decks. It is not an easy job to keep 75 boats on the right side of the start line to begin a race and thankfully only required a few recalls to bring the fleet back into line.
Many of the sailors are old hands at Coppet Week and know how to test the OOD and are looking for any signs of him not concentrating to make that all important start and hope to gain a big advantage, it was tried this year and again failed with the recalls and even a black flag on one occasion came out which is the equivalent of on the naughty step in non sailing terms.
The end of the week soon comes round and a weary fleet after much sailing and enjoying the evening events laid on in the clubhouse by the volunteer teams set out for the last race on Friday at 3pm. Eventually there were many winners from all various classes and age groups which can be found on the club Facebook pages and the website. The overall St Brides Spa Hotel Coppet Week champion was Robin Wood from Tata Sailing Club in his International Canoe.
Highest place Saundersfoot helm and also the junior winner was Ben Roberts in his Topper.
The prize for the oldest Helm went to our over 70 winner John Solomon from Manor Park but assisted by his more youthful Saundersfoot crew Jo Musson.
Thanks to all the volunteers who make this event happen each year by giving up a lot of time to support the club and again thanks to St Brides Spa Hotel for again sponsoring us with some great prizes.
1st prize went to Amanda Andrews from Llanteg, 2nd Prize was Jo Musson Saundersfoot SC, 3rd Prize to Lynette Turner a visiting sailor.
Future events:
Well after a great week we do need to start thinking about getting back to normality which begins with Friday 5th June at 18.30 which is another club come and try sailing event. Check out Facebook for details.
Racing is Sunday 7th June and starts at 10am.