It was still chilly enough to dissuade most of the general public from venturing to the beach on Sunday, so we enjoyed another empty beach. The offshore wind was variable in both strength and direction providing challenging conditions for the 10 boats who ventured out

Racing starts

 Race One saw Vareo Keith master the shifts well rounding the windward mark close behind the faster boats. With the wind varying between F1-3 keeping in pressure was the order of the day, although not always easily done. Keith managed to stay in touch with the leading pack to the finish earning a race win with Solution Ian second.

Snakes and ladders up the beat

In race two the three fastest boats opened up a good lead on the fleet with Team Ed in the Spitfire leading across the line with David & John (400) and Abby (700) just behind. On corrected tie Dave & John was first with Steve & Izzy in the National 12 staying close enough to come second.

Battle of the Vareo’s

The wind continued to misbehave for the third race, eventually fading to almost nothing. To the relief of everyone the OOD shortened the race. On corrected time there was just a few seconds between the top three boats, Ian managing the lighter conditions better than most earning him the race win with Vareo Richard second, two seconds ahead of Phil, who had swapped his Contender for his Zenith.

Thanks to the race team for moving the windward mark in order to maintain a decent beat in the shifty conditions. Todays ‘Top gun’ award goes to Ian for a consistent days racing with a 1,2,3 score line.

Full results http://www.gygsc.org.uk/Results/2026/2026Spring.htm

More pictures on the club Flickr site – https://www.flickr.com/photos/gygsc/albums/with/72177720333188767

Todays ‘Top gun’ Ian.

Conditions were looking promising for a good evenings sailing, a good breeze, flat sea and the dark grey clouds had now passed so the sun was making an appearance.

However, there was an unusual challenge to those who wished to sail in the form of a ruddy great crane blocking the road between the Pier Hotel and the Ocean Rooms. We had been advised it should be gone by six, but the emergency stairs being fitted were proving more time consuming to install than expected!

Undeterred, the RIB and dinghies were duly hauled round the other side of the ocean rooms onto the prom. This at least warmed everyone up.

Despite the challenge the race team got racing off almost on time. HW was supposedly around 20.00 but the flood tide was present all evening. The Northerly F2-3 was patchy and shifty and chilly.

By limiting races to two laps the race team were able to squeeze in a third race. Whilst the sun was by now quite low, the fact that we could still see the crane tower up we were hoping that delaying return to shore may see the crane gone by our return.

The delaying tactic played off as on our return to shore the crane was no longer there.

Dave, sailing a club Laser had a good evening posting three bullets, with Steve & Izzy in the National 12 second in each and Vareo Richard third.

Many thanks to the race team for a good evenings sailing and braving the cold at the end of the evening as the sun set.

Full results on the club site

http://www.gygsc.org.uk/Results/2026/2026Thursday.htm

More pictures on the club Flickr site – https://www.flickr.com/photos/gygsc/albums/with/72177720333188767