Solo Open Meeting at Ardleigh Sailing Club

Saturday 20th June saw a dozen Solos gather for the Ardleigh open meeting – 10 visitors and a rather disappointing 2 local boats. They were greeted by a light and variable easterly breeze.

Godfrey Clark made the best start in race 1 and pulled out a commanding lead that he held to the finish. Behind there was some close, tactical racing which saw Steve Ede recover from a poor start to eventually take second ahead of Mark Maskell.

Race 2 saw Clark again pull out a comfortable lead whilst Maskell and Jarvis Simpson tussled for second place. On the penultimate beat Simpson got caught the wrong side of a shift and lost several places.

Up front Clark sailed off to the wrong mark, allowing both Maskell and Ede through. At the finish Maskell just held off Ede with Clark third. This meant that going into the last race there were three boats tied on four points.

For the final race Maskell put on a dominant display, taking an early lead closely followed by Clark. Ede eventually pulled through to second, but left it too late to catch Maskell whilst Clark followed home in third.

So, overall Maskell won the event on 2 points with Clark beating Ede on the 'number of firsts' rule.