ISO Open at Herne Bay Sailing Club

The ISOs enjoy the conditions at Herne Bay © HBSC

Close cousins at Herne Bay

Herne Bay on the North Kent coast is one of those quaint English sea side towns that hiding a gem of a sailing venue. HBSC nestles right down on the promenade where you rig just above a shingle beach with a wooden ramp access to the sea. The Beach Master and team were superb at getting the ISO, Buzz and Laser 2000 fleets out to sea – a well drilled process!

First race in sun and a rising sea breeze saw Cousin Trestec off to a good start and rounding the first mark in close competition with National Champ Team RWO, Farter 'n Chunder and Neil Pryde 1 – the usual leaders. The racing was close, intense at times, finishing with Neil Pryde 1 missing the last mark in the excitement giving lead placing to Farter n Chunder after a protest results penalised Team RWO. Cousin Trestec made 3rd with no more than 2 boats lengths between each of the first four boats!

Race two and the conditions rose a little further taking the 4 or 5 lead boats up to the windward mark through the short chop almost together. Kites up and away downwind RWO leading the pack out to the land side of the course, leaving Cousin Trestec’s crew to call masterful downwind tactics to lead round the first leeward mark by a significant margin. Neil Pryde 1 chased hard throughout the rest of the race but couldn’t match Cousin Trestec’s speed. Cousin Trestec took the race with a handsome margin! Bad Fish benefited from a 3rd placing leaving the RWO Champs down in a sorry 4th with Farter n Chunder chugging through in 5th.

Close racing continued in race 4, Farter 'n Chunder regaining composure to lead on points after a further protest went against Neil Pryde 1. Cousin Trestec pulled in 4th place to win the day on just 8 points!

Herne Bay SC excelled in bringing boats off the water with almost military precision and went on to provide a Mexican evening - complete with Salsa dancing tutors! Good fun was had by all, as confirmed by the empties.

Sunday started off with light airs suiting Farter n Chunder, Neil Pryde 1 and RWO as usual. The wind picked up for race 5 enabling Cousin Trestec to find another gear and pull back up to 4th . Quick repairs to a broken swatcher between races and race 6 turned into a Cousin Trestec / RWO dual leaving the rest of the fleet to watch from behind. The lead changed several times as the crews tried to find the course advantage, with RWO just showing their Champs edge to ease out enough of a lead to secure the last race. Cousin Trestec settled for a satisfying 2nd place well ahead of Bad Fish and Neil Pryde 1.

Credits go to ISOHorny for sailing with the biggest pre-bend seen on a mast without being broken ! HBSC’s Chris Bealy and his stand in crew from the Spice stayed the course, despite a broken boom. (Spice booms fit ISOs nicely!). And a big welcome to the fleet for Peter Wright and Anna Wire – hope to see you out again soon.

A repeat thanks to all at Herne Bay for an excellent weekend. Great club.

Overall Results: