Horning Sailing Club enjoyed a varied weekend, with a number of events taking place.
Saturday saw the club's involvement in the 1,000 year St Benet's Abbey celebrations, with a social sail and cruise down to the Abbey on the outskirts of Horning Parish.
Once back to base, the club's Sundown Series began, providing informal racing opportunities during the evening.
Sunday saw the return of club racing, with a gentle breeze on the river, the north easterly winds providing a running start with a beat back down the river. In the Reedlings, Robert Hancock in Siskin won all three races, whilst results were more split across the other classes. In the strongest fleet of the day, the Rebels, Kevin Edwards won the first race (Rebel Maid), with the remaining races going to Kim West (Rebel), despite him briefly taking the wrong course in the second race.
Toby Fields (Tanskey) won two races in the Yeomans, with Geoff Stubbs (Tara) taking the third. In the Yare & Bures, both Clive Gardner's Hairstreak and Ali Bourke's Nevada Blue took a win each, with just two seconds separating the finishers in the second race. In the Cruisers, first over the water and on handicap was Peter Goshawk's Swallow.
Norfolk Punt Club
It was a very busy weekend on Barton Broad, with adult training on Friday night and Saturday morning, followed by "Push The Boat Out" in support of the RYA's initiative to offer sailing opportunities to as many people as possible and during the afternoon the Barton Bugs were out sailing under instruction in the Oppies.
Youngsters under the age of eight were put through their paces and the members and the visitors enjoyed seeing the boys and girls demonstrating their skills.
Sunday's racing was slightly more competitive than the Bugs and with a light, but chilly, northerly wind for the Punt Club on Barton Broad. It led to some close racing involving Norfolk Punts, White Boats, Toppers and a Yeoman.
Robin Slatter and Lesley Haines in their faster punt, Lavender, beat Goldeneye, sailed by Dick Roe and Kate Dulieu, over the water three times but on each occasion Dick and Kate were victorious after handicaps were taken into account, but only by the slim margins of 23, 58 and 15 seconds. Dick and Kate also won the morning race and so ended the day with a clean sweep.
Mark and Lenka Luckhurst won the White Boat race, despite having to make up ground after being sent back for a false start. Honours were shared with Peter Robbins and Simon Daniels coming out top in other races.
It was good to see juniors in Toppers braving the cold. Kyriel Fynn had a particularly successful day with two firsts in Allcomers B and a third in the combined race.
Hickling Broad Sailing Club
Saturday was the fourth training day for all age groups this season. Beginners were briefed in the clubhouse by Cliff Haslam, the potential race squad was out on the water being drilled by Will Symonds and overlooking all this activity was Alan Boughton.
Sunday was the third summer series races for points. The wind was better than forecast and not too blustery.
Phil Atherton, PRO for the day, made masterful use of the committee boat to get the line at the best angle and set a course to avoid less windy corners.
It was again another day for the Solo fleet and the Wayfarers; even two of the best Laser sailors with standard rig could not challenge the versatility of the former pair of dinghies. Robert Hawkins and Mac Powell in their Solos were consistently in the first three places. Richard Beach and Kevin Postlethwaite were second in the consistency stakes but Peter Dearnley in his Wayfarer with crew Dinah Slatter snatched two firsts and a third but equal on points for the day was Mac Powell's Solo with one first and three seconds. Dropping one race gave them five points each.
The Punts of James Jarvey, John Parker, Cliff Haslam and Jane Pye had some terrifically close encounters on the water but failed to make speed to cancel out the handicaps.
Next weekend the juniors are guests of the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk YC at Lowestoft to give them two days of sea sailing conditions. Sunday sees a passage race at Hickling.
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