70th Anniversary North West Norfolk Week

by Duncan Ellis 2 Sep 2019 12:15 BST 27 July - 3 August 2019

North West Norfolk Week 2019 © Neil Foster / www.neilfosterphotography.com

This year saw the 70th Anniversary of North West Norfolk Week which took place from the 27th July through to the 3rd August.

This unique family sailing week sees the sailors visit all of the sailing clubs in North West Norfolk over a period of 8 days while still leaving plenty of time to explore the area with the family. Competitors can enter for the entire week or take part using the daily entry system where they can choose which races they wish to enter.

The racing this year was split into 5 fleets comprising, National 12s, Streakers, Lasers, Supernovas and Allcomers. The Allcomers fleet saw the biggest number of entries across the week when combined with the daily entries with a total of 25 taking part. Both the National 12 and Lasers saw 15 boats each across the week with the Supernovas in double figures too and the Streakers not far behind.

This year the event kicked off at Snettisham Beach Sailing Club who stepped in for Hunstanton Sailing Club who were disappointed to be unable to host the first day due to the beach currently unsafe for launching for a large number of boats. Hopefully next year we will be back once the launch area is resolved!

Competitors were greeted to over 20 knots of breeze gusting substantially more. The race team went to sea to set the course but made the wise decision to abandon racing for the day as launching was going to be challenging with the wind direction and some of the gusts on the race course were getting stronger.

Day 2 arrived with a little less breeze and the racing moved to the Ouse Amateur Sailing Club at Saddlebow on Sunday which is an inland stretch of non-tidal water at the end of the Fenland drainage system. Not the largest expanse of water so the fleets were split for am/pm racing and 2 races were held for each fleet with one race counting for the lost race the previous day.

The Gores racing their N12, Fisher in his Vareo, Bradley in his Streaker and Pakes in his Supernova won all races of the day with only the Laser fleet seeing 2 different race winners in Bassett and Pearson taking a race each.

The fleets headed for Brancaster Staithe for day 3 with a light breeze getting everybody round the race course. Fisher continued his dominance in the Allcomers fleet with both the Gores and Bradley doing the same. The Supernovas and Lasers saw new race winners in Bloom and Sallis.

The next stop was Blakeney for an early evening sail. The forecast was again breezy and as the start time got nearer sailors began to get rigged and ready to go. As boats were being held down to their trolleys by sitting on them the first few boats ventured out with some excitement for the spectators as a dead run along the river was the only way to the race area. As the breeze kept building the race team made the difficult decision to abandon the race for the day.

Wells next the Sea greeted the fleet the following evening next with a little less breeze to the day before. New race winners in both the Laser and N12 fleets saw Plumbe and the Sallis team take the victory. Bradley, Pakes and Fisher continued their dominance in the other fleets.

North West Norfolk Week 2019 - photo © Neil Foster / www.neilfosterphotography.com

Day 6 took us to Overy Staithe Sailing Club for the final evening sail. Sallis took the race win in the Laser and Pakes again in his Supernova, Isles took his first win of the week in the Streaker, Scoles in his OK won the Allcomers fleet and the Sallis team the N12 win.

The fleet now head back to Snettisham Beach for racing over the final 2 days and a party to celebrate 70 years!

North West Norfolk Week 2019 - photo © Neil Foster / www.neilfosterphotography.com

Friday morning saw Norris and Wildbur take the win in the Allcomers fleet in their 2000. The laser fleet saw Major take the victory, the N12s, Supernovas and Streaker fleets saw the Sallis team, Pakes and Isles again take line honours.

Saturday's early start saw a few competitors not quite make it due to excessive partying the night before! The breeze was very light but the race team did manage to get one final race in. Fisher, Bassett, the Gores and Bradley all continued with race wins and Mason took his first victory of the week in the Supernova. Jonti for those historians amongst you has been taking part in Norfolk Week since records began and has in fact taken part in each fleet start over the years.