Rollesby Broad Multisail Open regatta

This year the Multisail regatta at Rollesby incorporated the Leader National Championship and a Bittern Travellers event.

The Leaders enjoyed three short races on Saturday afternoon. The first race was held in marginal planning conditions, home sailors Ian and Sharon Ayres won narrowly from Chris and Jane Wharmby from Milton Keynes. Despite changing conditions, this was the same result for all three races.

Sunday dawned grey and wet and a smaller than perhaps anticipated home fleet joined the Leaders. The Ayres led the fleet up the first beat with Pete and Rachel Smith hot out of the blocks in their Wayfarer close on their tale.

Chris Mann and Heather Vaughan in their Enterprise made the most of the easing conditions to slide through the fleet late on and take the win from the Smiths. In race two the Smiths took the win after an epic battle with Ian Hanson and Mike Horwitz.

After a long lunch break, Roger and Cybil Morse in a Leader won the afternoon start, but the Ayres were through by the first mark with Dave and Diane Goodwin and Mann and Vaughan in Enterprises in close pursuit. Bob Sparrow and Tony Gibbs (Wayfarer) broke through in the cut with Mike Broadbent and Hugh Rout in their ISO clawing their way back from a poor start. The long reach back should have worked in the ISOs favour, but with spinnaker flying well the Ayres just held on to win on the water. Sparrow was second but Mann pipped Goodwin for third and it was enough to give them the meeting on countback.

In the Bitterns Bruce Thompson sailing single handed narrowly took the first race from John Atkinson with Leona Levine crewing. The result was reversed though with a larger margin in race two meaning the Eels Foot was winner takes all. Unfortunately Thompson struggled through the cut on the way out giving Thompson a commanding lead which he managed well, showing some of the faster boats how to make the best of limited boatspeed on the return leg.

Waveney & Oulton Broad

A trend is developing at Waveney & Oulton Broad Yacht Club for dinghies to concentrate on racing on Saturdays and keelboats on Sundays. The first Fast Handicap on Saturday was won on corrected time by Veronica Falat in her Streaker, with Duncan Madin's K1 2nd but these places were reversed in the following race when Madin finished well ahead of the fleet. Pete Matthews in his Solo was third in both races, after a close battle with the lasers of the Nourse twins and Oliver Hunt.

In the Slow Handicap, Thomas Betts won the first race in his Topper but, in the second, Max Stratford, sailing his Topper Taz, was close enough to take the win on corrected time.

On Sunday the annual Dragon Boat racing took place alongside the park and so the WOBYC club racing was started and finished from the committee boat. The Squibs provided the main fleet and Denise and Kerr Sinclair in Slinky dominated the class race, while David Gooch and Stef Oosthuysen in Firebird pulled through to second. The Squibs then had the Mixed Keels race to themselves and Richard Sullivan and Marc Moncreiff in Crazy Diamond took the win ahead of Slinky and Firebird in that order. Crazy Diamond now has a clear lead in this series, having won four of the five races sailed so far.

Horning Sailing Club

Horning Sailing Club's annual Single-handed Open took place on Saturday, attracting 16 entrants in a variety of boats, sailing on the River Bure outside the Clubhouse.

With three races planned, the sailors were split into two fleets; Allcomers, which was mainly Splashes and Lasers, and Toppers. With the first start seeing several boats recalled to the line, William Symonds sailing his Laser managed to pull away, and led for the whole race, although he was beaten on handicap by Ellie Edwards in her Splash. Third, fourth and fifth respectively were the Lasers of Edward Wildman, Anna Bunn and Charlotte Hammond, all recovering well from being over at the start. The first Topper race saw Tom Riches develop a clear lead, ahead of James Street and Ashley Williams, to take first place.

The second race saw Ellie take another win in her Splash, ahead of William in second place, and Roger Hannant in third, also sailing a Laser, and Tom also winning his second race in the Toppers, with Ashley second and Charlie Broadbent third. The final race was where the fun began, as the winds had really picked up to provide challenging sailing.

A squall passing through halfway caused several capsizes and forced several retirements, with only six of the 10 starters finishing. It became a battle of experience against youth in the Allcomers fleets, with close racing, particularly between twins Edward and Thomas Wildman and Roger Hannant. Eventually it was Edward who took line honours, with Roger second and Thomas third. In the Topper fleet it was Charlie who finished first, ahead of Tom in second and James third. First overall was Ellie, with Edward second and William third in the Splashes and Lasers. Tom was first Topper, followed by James and Ashley.

Sunday's racing was popular at the club, with the early grey skies clearing to provide warm sunshine and a pleasant breeze. Once again the biggest fleets were the Yeomans and dinghies. Ten Yeomans competed with Geoff Stubbs sailing Tara winning two races and coming second in another, whilst Toby Fields sailing Tanskey had a first, second and fourth. The final race was won by Kevin Edwards sailing Avocet. The mixed dinghy fleet of Splashes, Lasers, a Miracle and a Topper saw Richie Dugdale take two wins in his Laser.