Waldringfield e-Easter Egg

Waldringfield Sailing Club e-Easter Egg © Ian Videlo

Waldringfield's traditional Easter Egg open meeting was transformed into a Virtual Regatta event. One of the benefits of a virtual event is that you can schedule it to coincide with the one chilly day of an otherwise glorious Easter Weekend.

A handful of visiting Lark sailors joined the Waldringfield e-sailing community for an event comprising 3 heats followed by a grand final in the evening. In all, some 44 people entered the event. The heats were dominated by three Cadet sailors from the 2000s, Ben, Hamish & Stephen, with notable performances from current Cadet sailors Inés Green, Dominic McArdle & Toby Bush amongst others. Racing was close and competitive, but none more so that the second race of heat 2 where a blanket finish saw most of the fleet finish within a second of each other.

Waldringfield Sailing Club e-Easter Egg - photo © Ian Videlo

Each flight comprised four races, the first two in Dayboats and then the final two in 49ers. Most of the participants joined an online meeting for the banter, though it was much quieter once the races were under way. The one exception was when the guest Race Officer for heat 2, Dan Watson "capsized" and was eliminated from his first race as he took the cover off his iPad. Nevertheless he then surpassed himself with an entertaining blow by blow commentary of the rest of that race.

So after a well deserved break for refuelling, the top 20 competitors reconvened in the evening to resume battle. And what an experience it proved to be with everyone pretty evenly matched the racing was extremely tight. There was hardly anything to separate the fleet with all 20 boats converging on the second windward mark together. How did that keep on happening?

Waldringfield Sailing Club e-Easter Egg - photo © Ian Videlo

Ed Harris, fresh from his victory at the RS200 version of the Waldringfield Easter Egg on Friday looked to be in pole position going into the final race, but wasn't quite able to get out of the bunch, allowing Aaron Woolf to claim overall victory by one point. In third overall, travelling (virtually) all the way from Dorset was Ned Winter. Only a handful of points then separated 4th to 16th places, with youngsters Toby Bush and Isobel Stewart finding the consistency that most others couldn't.

Overall a most enjoyable afternoon catching up with friends and enjoying some great racing.

Heat Results:

Overall Results: