Great Yarmouth and Gorleston SC hosted their annual Beach Regatta over the weekend. Competitors were treated to two days of sunshine and following an hour’s postponement for conditions to settle (120º veer) near perfect winds as the sea breeze developed and stabilised from the SE. Race Officer Ben Falat with assistance from the D-One fleet set a large windward leeward course for the 16 boats with 10 different classes ranging from Lasers to a high speed Shadow X catamaran. Phil Highfield sailing an RS700 dominated the racing on Saturday securing two race wins. Richard Smith sailing a Laser improved in each race, as tidal current turned to emphasise offwind legs, to win the final race of the day.
The wind on Sunday had increased slightly providing some exciting downwind legs for the predominately asymmetric kited dinghies. Phil Highfield started the day well with a win in the first race over an enormous course. Chris Sallis and Martin Browne, both sailing D-One’s enjoyed very close racing over the final two slightly condensed courses with both leading at some point during the racing and pushing each other very hard. Chris finishing a matter of seconds ahead of Martin in each race and securing the top two places in each race. This bodes well for their build up to the D-One Nationals being hosted by GYGSC at the end of this month.
With no capsizes and only one retirement over the whole weekend, there was a great feeling of, ‘Gorleston at its best’ !GYGSC Beach Regatta
Saturday:
Race One: 1 RS700 (P Highfield), 2 D-One (S Gray), 3 Laser (R Smith)
Race Two: 1 RS700 (P Highfield), 2 Laser (R Smith), 3 D-One (N Crickmore)
Race Three: 1 Laser (R Smith), 2 Shadow X (D Brief), 3 RS700 (P Highfield)Sunday:
Race Four: 1 RS700 (P Highfield), 2 D-One (C Sallis), 3 Laser (R Smith)
Race Five: 1 D-One (C Sallis), 2 D-One (M Browne), 3 Laser (R Smith)
Race Six: 1 D-One (C Sallis), 2 D-One (M Browne), 3 RS700 (P Highfield)Overall Results
1: RS700 (P Highfield) GYGSC 9pts,
2 Laser (R Smith) WOBYC 12pts,
3 RS500 (A Zmura/K Sykes) GYGSC 28pts,
4 D-One (N Crickmore) WOBYC 29pts
‘Gorleston at its best’ !
