15 boats took to the water last Sunday for the first instalment of the Sprint series at Gorleston.
The race team set a large windward leeward course with a pleasant F2 SWerly. The flooding tide made short work of the beat to the relief of the ‘hikers’, I say that from experience!
Race 1 – Dave Abbott and Richard Sawyer in their Hobie Tiger led the fleet round the windward mark. Most of the fleet reached offshore where there appeared to be more wind but Gary Fryer sailing a RS300 soaked deep staying inshore and out of the tide which saw him round the leeward mark amongst the leading pack of RS400’s and D-One’s. A position he retained until the finish giving him a win of nearly two minutes on corrected time. The D-Ones were have a close battle with many place changes throughout the race, Martin Browne led over the line to claim second with Chris Sallis close behind to finish third.
Race 2 – the wind had picked up to F3-4 and with the tide easing the sea conditions began to change with some good rollers developing offshore providing great surfing conditions off wind. Dave and Richard again stormed off into the lead lapping many boats but could not gain enough to hold their handicap. Gary Fryer kept to his plan avoiding the tide downwind to win the race but this time by only a few seconds from the leading D-One, which this time was Chris Sallis. It is a rare occasion when no 400’s appear in the podium places but Commodore Ed Anderson, slumming it in his Laser instead of the Hobie Tiger edged out Richard and Carol by a few seconds to claim third spot.
Although Race 3 got under way the wind got a little friskier and the sea offshore was getting challenging with some big rollers. This led to a few capsizes with the added complication of the rescue having some fuel issues. This meant the committee boat having to leave station to assist and so the race was abandoned.
Results Here