Author: Keith Sykes

D-One Open at Oxford Sailing Club

by Chris Sallis 1-2 April 2017

With a poor forecast and several regular D One sailors on ‘other duties’, a small fleet assembled at Oxford SC on the 1st and 2nd of April for the first event of the 2017 Travellers Trophy. Contrary to the forecast of light wind and rain the fleet headed out into a sunny force 3 on Saturday afternoon.

Race one got under way with Oxford local Terry Brookes nailing the first beat to round ahead of Paul Birbeck and Nick Crickmore. As these 3 took off downwind Chris Sallis gybe-set to hook up some good pressure on the left and pulled through to lead at the leeward buoy. Terry continued to chase but some loose covering saw Chris take the win.

Race two started in similar conditions with a tight first beat and downwind, this time Terry led at the bottom buoy followed by Nick and Chris. With the wind starting to swing left and right Chris found a passing lane on the upwind and managed to pull ahead into a comfortable lead with Terry taking second and Paul third.

Race three saw Terry going quickly on the first downwind and then extend his lead over Chris and Paul. So at the end of a great afternoons sailing Chris and Terry were separated by 1 point with Paul rounding out the top three.

Sunday started with a promising breeze but by the time the race got under way the conditions had got pretty funky with localised shifts and pressure all over the reservoir. Chris managed stand on from the start into a line of left hand pressure that he and Paul pulled away in. As the race progressed conditions got trickier and Paul who was having a great race got hung out to dry as the left-hand side glassed out and pressure came in from the right. This let Terry move through to 2nd but Chris had enough of a lead to get down to the finish and take the win.

With conditions not looking like improving the fleet had a quick on the water meeting and decided to head for the comfort of the club house. Everyone enjoyed a great event and had all benefited from some early season fleet racing. The Italian Nationals are being held at Santa Margherita Ligure near Portofino at the end of the month for those who fancy a weekend away and the next UK Travellers Trophy is at POSH on the 6th and 7th of May before the fleet heads for Lake Balaton in Hungary for the Gold Cup at the end of May.

Overall Results:

1st Chris Sallis
2nd Terry Brookes
3rd Paul Birbeck
4th Nick Crickmore
5th Gordon Davies

Ramp successfully down for the new season!

Thanks to everyone who came along to help. First race next Sunday, hope to see you there.

If you look in the back ground you can just see the new Prototype guest beach trolley, just slide you existing trolley on top and away you fly!

A quick update on the last events of the season.

Oct 2^nd It’s the last of the Sprint series and the penultimate week of the Autumn series.

Oct 9^th  The it is the last week in the Autumn Series.

Oct 16^th & 23^rd The Double header of the End of Season Open mini-series.

12^th Nov  End of Season Meal – New Date.

Due to a number of members unable to make the End of Season meal on the planned date it has been moved to November the 12^th.   This will be held in the club house and catered by our own Martin Browne. (Menu Details to follow).

Monday 21st November  The GYGSC AGM will be held at the club at 8.00pm.

As usual the AGM will be followed by the Sailing Forum which gives everyone the chance to say what they would like to see in next year’s sailing programme how the racing should be run and what changes might be introduced to make the club as successful as possible in 2016.

Looking for a volunteer for the results next season no need to be on the committee and full training given.

We have Vacancies on committee – Sign up on the sheet in the club house

Or just drop me or one of the Phils a line.

Congratulation to the Gorleston Sailors who took park in the Annual interclub Ramuz Trophy at Rollesby Broad Sailing Club on Saturday the 10th September. 14 Clubs sent teams to sail in .4 heats of 7 Wayfarers with the top 6 sailing in the Final. Richard Brown and Robyn Ollington representing GYGSC had a 3rd in their first heat and despite a great first lap in their second heat slipped back to finish 5th. This was enough for a place in the Final. Chris Haslam sailing with Jane Pye and representing Snowflakes SC had a 3rd and a 1st to put them into the Final. Jane and Chris got a good start in the final and managed to break free from the fleet for a well dissevered win. Richard and Robyn finished in a commendable 4th

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If you wish to see pictures of the event they are available here.

http://www.rbsc.org.uk/2016/09/ramuz-trophy-photos/

For those travelling to Gorleston from the west it looked likely there might be no sailing this week as travelling down the Acle straight there was thick mist and very little wind. As we approached Gorleston the mist started to clear and by the time we reached the club it was bright sunshine. Martin, OOD for the day rightly postponed the start whilst the sea breeze picked up and as the small fleet left the beach the wind had built to a F2 from the SE (ish!).

As the day progressed the conditions just got better and better and by race three the wind was F3. By popular demand the race team put on a fourth race which was to be the best one the day with a F3/4 and some waves making downwind legs a bit more exciting. Big thanks to the race team of Martin, Adrian and Tom. Just goes to prove good things come to those who wait, with unbroken sunshine, a F2 – 4 wind and four good races.

Chris, sailing a club laser was ‘top starter’ of the day winning prime spot in 3 of the 4 races. Tom, sailing dad’s D-One quickly got the hang of things showing good downwind speed particularly when the wind picked up. Phil and Lorna must win the ‘ keen’ award as they only arrived back from holiday in the early hours of Sunday morning but still looked remarkably awake. The endurance award of the day went to ‘little’ Ed who survived three races sailing with his dad in a 400.

regards

Dave