It was Costa del Gorleston on Sunday serving up a glorious day’s sailing for the penultimate day of the summer series. Plus 20 degrees, sunny, a F2-3 breeze and the race team setting a great course.
Conditions tempted some members to go for an early morning, pre-sailing paddle on their SUP’s. No doubt this may become more common as the club now has a ‘club’ board for members to use.
Nine boats made ready on the beach for three races in near perfect conditions, well prefect for the lighter weight crews, some of the heavier crews thought a little more wind would have been nice.
Racing got underway with the wind settling from a NE direction and the last of the ebb tide. Three boats opened up a gap on the fleet with Dave & John (400) leading Nick (D-One) and Phil & Lorna (400). Most headed offshore to pick up the last remains of the tide. After three laps Dave & John had opened up a good lead and saving their place on corrected time with Steve W (Europe) picking up second just ahead of Nick who beat Richard (Vareo) by twelve seconds.
The tide was almost slack at the start of race two but started to flood by the end of the race. This time four boats sailed away from the others with Steve G (D-One) joining the previous three. The wind eased slightly during the race and after two laps the leading four were quite a long way ahead so the race team let them through to sail a third lap but finished the others after their second lap. On corrected time Dave & John won, Steve W was second and Steve G third, just ten seconds ahead of David Brief (Solution).
Race three and the flood tide set in. The wind had moved slightly to the East which allowed boats lee bow the tide, something many did to good effect. The race team did an excellent job moving the leeward gate halfway through the race which perfectly reset the course.
Dave & John took their third win of the day, with Richard second and David third.
Many thanks to the race team for a lovely day’s sailing and to the weather gods for supplying such perfect conditions. Also to young Ed for his assistance in the dinner preparations, the stand in chefs failed to remember to turn off the oven before they left shore, fortunately Ed did….so no burnt pies!
Results and pictures available via the club website.
Pictures – GYGSC’s albums | Flickr
Full results – http://www.gygsc.org.uk/Results/2022/2022Summer.htm