Horning Sailing Club's 2019 season got underway in near perfect weather, with warm sunshine and a good breeze.
Reedlings, Rebels, Yeomans, Yare & Bures and Dinghies took to the water for an early-season sail, enjoying the Spring-like conditions, despite a few challenging wind shifts.
The day also saw extremely close racing, with just seconds separating competitors across many of the fleets. Derek Jones in the Reedlings had a very close battle with Kevin Saunders, eventually winning by just three seconds. The Rebels saw similarly close competition between Gary Wright (Lucky Rebel) and Kim West (Rebel), with two wins going to Kim, once by just two seconds, and one win to Gary after Kim picked up a penalty. The three Yeomans were also evenly matched, Toby Fields (Tanskey), Bernie Westgate (Misty Morning) and Kevin Edwards (Ana?h) taking a win each, in the first race just one second separating first and second place. Alastair Fields made it three wins in the YBODs sailing Rosy Wave.
The strongest fleet of the day was the dinghies. Whilst the occasional gust caused a few capsizes, three Splashes, a Laser and Enterprise battled it out on the water. In the end it was Ellie Edwards sailing her Splash who triumphed with two wins and a second place and the Enterprise of Jack Copping (Timshel) second with a win and two second places.
Next Sunday sees the first Downriver race to Thurne on Horning's calendar, an Open event with visiting sailors welcome.
Norwich Frostbites
Sunday marked the final day for club racing at Frostbites and the final day for the Norfolks and Allcomers Series Races.
Next Sunday the downriver series start with the final Long Distance Race for the Paul Pint Pot ending the season on April 28.
In the 11am race, 11 Norfolk Dinghies approached a congested start line in a gusty north-west wind and many started prematurely and had to return to cross the line again.
David Mackley sailing B6 Lucifer beyond repair and crewed by Linda Allen made a near perfect start, closely followed by Geoff Coulthard in B71 Wild Duck, crewed by Steven Ford. During the race, which involved a difficult beat up to the top buoy in the Cut, both Sam Woodcock, sailing B20 Kelpie and crewed by Sam Archer, and Ray Johnson in B54 Coot, crewed by Wendy Bush, overtook Coulthard and the three leading boats, Mackley, Woodcock and Johnson had a cracking race finishing within two minutes of each other in that order with Coulthard coming in half a minute later. On handicap Coulthard was the winner, with Johnson second and Mackley third.
In the second race, 10 Norfolks came to the line and this time, after suffering rig failure in the first race and retiring, Pat Woodcock, sailing B61 Echo and crewed by Jan Hubbard, was first away followed closely by Mackley. After plenty of tussling Mackley moved into first position, followed by Johnson, with Woodcock looking to be third. However, in the final beat to the line Mike Lees, after a catastrophic start, managed to overtake to leeward and take third by four seconds over Woodcock. On handicap Mackley held his time as did Johnson but third went to Woodcock.
Rollesby Broad SC
An inconsistent westerly breeze meant short beats, long reaches and increased the importance of a good start.
The Solos were again to the fore, but not exclusively so. Roger Wilson and Ian Ayres led at the first mark with Daniel Bull in his Laser for company. On the first reach Mike McNamara took his rightful place in front in his Harrier, eventually being joined by Dave Frary in his Finn. Neither they nor Bull could pull out enough from the two Solos, with Wilson taking the win. Steve Whitby kept his Minisail in touch to take fourth on handicap.
Twenty seconds before the start of race two, Clive Girling (Laser) managed to capsize and lasso the windward line marker causing complete mayhem at that end of the line. Wilson was the only boat with a clear run and led by around 10 lengths at the first mark from Ayres, Matt Boreham and Bull. Bull charged down the first full reach and as the fleet tried to sort itself out, Bull gained enough to win by three seconds from Wilson and Ayres .
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