Channel Race at Clevedon Sailing Club

Robin Goff (left) and Martin Gibson (winner) approach Denny Island in the Clevedon SC Channel Race © Paul Hield

Clevedon Sailing Club's annual channel race was held in glorious sunshine on the bank holiday Sunday with good sailing wind. The long-distance race is from Clevedon to Denny Island and back. The aim for competitors is to time their departure to achieve the rounding of the rocky outcrop near Avonmouth to coincide with high water. This way they get the benefit of the flood tide on the way there and the ebbing tide sailing home.

The fleet of nine dinghies started according to their skippers' best estimate of how long the passage would take. All the boats reached Denny before the tide had turned so that earlier starters were most compromised by sailing against the current. Amongst the group who delayed their departure for longest and reached the turning point as the tide was close to turning were Martin Gibson (Laser) and Robin Goff (D-Zero) who took first and second places respectively. One early starter was the 420 of Baker/Turner, who sailed at a splendid pace to take third place despite the disadvantage of having the current against them for a quarter of the race.