Category: Reports

Wind Strength = F2 , Direction = Easterly

A lovely evening and  a turnout of 5 lasers, 2 Rs300 and Rs400 saw 2 closely fought races.

The first saw the 2 R300’s round first followed by Phil and Lorna in the 400 with Keith and Richard neck and neck in the 2 lasers, with Keith and Richard changing places throughout the race.  At the end on the third lap the everything was very close.  With Dave taking the honours by 2 seconds on corrected time from Richard Brown with Keith only 5 seconds behind him.

The second race saw the 2 300’s get way with Dave edging away from Richard Fryer and Phil and Lorna, in the lasers Keith managed to break away leaving Ed and Richard to battle for 4th,  Dave again took the win this time Fryer taking 2nd and Keith 3rd,  Brown just overhauling Ed on the last leg to take 4th.

Many thank to Nick Eastwood for running the races.

Thursday Results also updated here.

On a separate note congratulations to Richard Fryer for his 4th in the Rs300 Slalom’s at Bristol last weekend.

More details and some video here……..

Wind Strength = F2 , Direction = Various

With a forecast of a changeable wind direction and a strong tide, the boats gathered on the prom to await a settled breeze. A few sailors decided to head home, then the wind appeared to arrive from the south east and after a quick change the fleet headed out.  The first race got away at 11:30 and all was looking good for the first lap as the lead boats headed back down wind, on the second lap the wind swung further to the east,  with spinnakers dropped Chris Sallis held off the following 400’s of Brown and Houghton for the first victory of the day.  With the course reset and the first signal sounded the wind veered to the north east  the consensus was to start the race anyway.  With Kites hoisted as soon as boats cleared the line the boats reached for the mark, Houghton, James (without kite) and Gray rounded first and headed back, The less than conventional course and only 2 ten minute laps saw Dave Houghton hold off Steve Gray to take the honours.   The wind now directly from the East and the course reset (not far enough into the tide) and the repaired Hobbie of the 2 Steves joined the fleet for the third race.  The 700 and Hobbie cleared the fleet but not each other to round together at the end on the first lap, Sallis and Houghton in 3rd and 4th.  The now shorter than normal course meant it was 4 laps for the Hobbie and 700 never too far apart but Sallis took the honours from Highfield in the 700 and Houghton in 3rd.  The later start and course changes meant we called it a day and headed in for a late lunch. 

Spring Results available here.  

Thursday Results also updated here.

Keith and Anna

At last the season started today at Gorleston, with the aptly named ‘Start of season’ trophy.  Conditions could not have been better with sunshine all day and a F2 wind to start with but increasing throughout the day.  With the assistance of a flooding tide upwind legs were relatively short meaning plenty of time to enjoy the downwind legs. The D-One’s were out in force with Chris kicking of the season with a perfect score.  Dave H.

Full Results Here………..

The D-One Eastern Championship-2015 was held at Gorleston over 27/28 June as part of the Gorleston Beach Regatta. This mixed regatta has huge history, evidenced in club correspondence with The Admiralty, who used annually to lay twelve special flagged Race-Cans in circular compass-configuration, 1½-mile diameter, around a central one;  …. those were the days …. !

D-One sailors had had over two weeks of intense lead-up training at their Grafham Open, and then their “Suntouched” Championships at Highcliffe.

Saturday’s conditions bode well initially with a reasonable wind-strength, but before the start a classic sea-breeze battle ensued, such that some competitors could not even find a way through the, ‘… Dead Zone …’, to the start-line.  Race Management got fed-up waiting and progressed a start-sequence anyway which most boats managed, though Ben Falat’s D-One only crossed many, many minutes later.   During this quasi-windward-leeward race (sausages anyway!), at one stage there were spinnakers charging towards each other on opposite legs and courses with game-o’-chicken being played as to who would leave it latest before the new wind hit them on the nose;  the lesser the number of sails carried, the better the control, so Phantoms, Laser and Tasar did well.   Gradually conditions settled and another two regular races could be held in absolutely champagne conditions;  bullets went to Chris and Angie Sallis twice in their Tasar, and to Ben Falat.   Sunday appeared to be on track for some cracking racing in a fine SW F3;  Martin Browne eagerly joined in with Sallis reverting to his D-One, however shortly after the first start the wind veered further to the west making the race extremely one sided and favouring spinnakered boats on a long open fetch back towards the ‘gate’.   D-One lead on the tighter leg alternated between Sallis & Falat for who might take a brief gust best to drive off against a strong tidal current, the meanwhile Browne was consistently keeping speed and driving low;  this latter policy paid handsomely as the front two over-stood their mark and finally Browne took 2nd place with Sallis just hanging-in-there.  In front overall, Richard Fryer and David Houghton had a dogged (reach-in-breeze & screw-in-lull ….) battle in their RS400s.   After two completed rounds of this everyone was pretty fed-up with the general non-racing and the plug was pulled;  by now any strength in breeze was starting to fail as forecast as well as some huge apparent shifts in direction.  Race management persisted for some while trying to lay any sort of course but by then most of the fleet had self-elected to head home. Eventually any hope of racng for the day was abandoned and results were governed hugely by Saturday’s efforts [ Sallis (Tasar)-1st;   Falat (D-One)-2nd;   Favell (PhatGnome)-3rd ]. Br,

the Bendy-One

Shifty winds and a big sea made for interesting sailing conditions today; 12 boats raced in the 4^th spring series with a wind undecided between the south and the west. The start line was set up just past the ravine with the windward mark set beyond the wreck buoy, where sailors reported increased wave size.  Racing was very dependent on choice of course and whether sailors found the wind or stayed upright; giving some exciting racing with lead boats changing with each lap. Race 1, 1^st lap had 4 boats with 4 seconds between them; Chris and Martin in the D1’s, and Richard and Dave in the 400’s, 2^nd lap Martin went out to sea increasing his lead by 40 seconds clear of Dave and John in the 400. Race 2 Dave and John capsized in the 400 leaving the way clear for the D1’s, and Richard and Robyn in the 400 had a stonker of a second lap. In race 3 D1’s got away only for Martin to capsize just at the leeward mark on the 1^st lap, Martin caught the fleet up, going out to sea on the last downward leg, finding the wind (we could hear him humming on the start line boat) and beating Steve in his D1 by 1 second, an exciting finish too between the two Richards in the 400’s with Richard and Robyn taking it by 1 second. A good days racing.

Anna.

A fresh breeze greeted everyone as they arrived on the beach for the second weekend of the Watling Plate series. 11 boats launched in what was to be an exciting days racing. With the wind in a South Easterly direction the start line was set off the beach in pleasant sailing conditions. Apparently this was not however the case at the windward mark! After a clean start there was a tight battle between Richard Fryer and Carol Smalls in the RS400 and the 2 lead D-ONES helmed by Chris Sallis and Martyn Browne throughout the race. Both D-ONEs dropped their spinnaker early on one of the down wind legs allowing Richard Fryer to take the win by 6 seconds. Followed by the D-ONEs.

There were a few capsizes at the windward mark and several wobbly gybes in what was described as ‘very wavy out there’ by several sailors, which led to less takers for the next race. Nick Favell led the fleet round the first two marks of the triangular course before being overhauled by the lead asymmetrics. 2 laps later as the finishing boats were approaching the finish line it was all down to the last 30 seconds. Martyn somehow managed to survive a massively wobbly gybe and make the line with inches to spare on the committee boat to take the win, with Richard Fryer taking 2nd place and Chris Sallis taking 3rd, Nick Favell took his second 4th of the day.   With the wind and waves building the fleet went in for pie!

A big thank you to Josh and John who performed excellently assisting the fleet.

Results  Click here

Tamsin/Phil