K1 Open at Broxbourne Sailing Club
by Mike Deane 10 Nov 2016 12:54 GMT
Despite a dire forecast from Wind Guru, an enthusiastic group of competitors arrived at Broxbourne Sailing Club last Saturday to compete for the new Pumpkin trophy, generously donated by Jeff Vander-Bought of VanderCraft, the K1 Class builder.
The Broxbourne meeting was also to be the last event in the 2016 K1 traveller series, which started last March at Wimbleball and has seen the fleet travel to events at Carsington, South Windermere, Lyme Regis, Bala and Lymington. Entries for this end of season event had travelled from as far afield as Windermere, South Devon, the south and east coasts of the UK. The fleet also welcomed another new member, Ian Klyne from Datchet Water, who was delighted to find a water level that would allow him to both launch and sail his brand new K1.
The race team were determined to reward those visitors who had travelled with an opportunity to race. After a lengthy postponement, most wind indicators had finally orientated to the expected southerly direction, so a course was set and the fleet launched.
The first race saw Mike Deane pop out into a healthy lead, at one stage he was a leg ahead, David Hume was struggling to extricate himself form the rest of the fleet and it was not until start of the second beat that he was free to set off in pursuit of Mike. The leaders maintained their positions to the finish and Ian Klyne eventually secured third place.
The second race saw Mike Deane lead around the first mark, followed by Dave Swordy and then David Hume. The two Davids swapped places on the second windward beat, and on the final downwind leg. David Hume then found a helpful zephyr on the opposite gybe and made significant ground on the leader, but Mike kept his nerve and held on to win by a comfortable 3 to 4 boat lengths. However the excitement was not over because Ian Klyne slipped by David Swordy to take third place overall, by just the length of his foredeck, on the line.
Broxbourne Results: (top three)
1st Mike Deane K1-106 (South Windermere Sailing Club)
2nd David Hume K1-111 (Broxbourne Sailing Club)
3rd Ian Klyne K1-131 (Datchet Water Sailing Club)
K1 Class Traveller Series Results 2016: (top three)
1st Mike Deane K1-106 (South Windermere Sailing Club)
2nd Mike Commander K1 103 (Teign Corinthian Yacht Club)
3rd David Hume K1-111 (Broxbourne Sailing Club)