The forecasted mist must have cleared early as Gorleston was bathed with sunshine when we arrived for Act 4 of the Spring series, a pleasant change from the previous few weeks.
The wind began as a F2 increasing to F3-4 by the end of the day. With low water at 13.45 it meant a beat into the tide so a tough day for the hiking boats.
Steve turned up with his latest WMD, a lovely wooden ‘Unit’ class dinghy which Steve obviously had spent considerable time working on. Apparently only 10 were ever made and Steve has two of them. This was going to prove an upgrade to his ‘Pocket Rocket’ Europe and will be now referred to as Steve’s Saturn V.
Racing about to commence
Race One – wind still F2 but increased throughout the race. RS700 Phil made quick work of the beat to lead by some distance at the line. After lap one Dave & John led Richard & Rosie by a few seconds. Just behind, the rest of the fleet were closely packed with Saturn V just ahead.
Richard & Rosie moved into second position on the next lap and held this to the line. Steve was taming the Saturn V finding some good upwind speed putting in two quick final laps.
Jostling for position
Race 2 – wind around F3 and now SSE. The RS700 did a horizon job eventually lapping some. The leading RS400’s were joined by the Saturn V at the windward mark, which was matching them upwind. Just behind Nick, sailing his Phantom led pack of three boats. The RS700 was so far ahead Phil earned an extra lap so the first boat to cross the line was the RS400 of Dave & John with Saturn V just pipping Richard & Rosie. The long beats suited Phil in his Contender as he pulled ahead of the other to finish forth. Richard had a potentially boat damaging incident when the shroud broke on his RS Vareo whilst flying the spinny, some quick reactions pulling the spinny down avoided any problems.
The asymmetrics lead downwind
Race Three – Wind still a steady F3, after lap one the RS700 had a lead of nearly two minutes. The conditions were proving ideal for the Saturn V with Steve enjoying some close sailing with the RS400’s, at the line only a few seconds separated the three of them.
On corrected time the upwind speed of the Saturn V proved good enough to win all three races. The RS700 scored three seconds, and very close on time to the Saturn V in the first two races. Third place honours were shared by the RS400’s.
Thanks to the race team for a great days sailing. It proved to be a tiring day for the hiking boats.
Results are on the club web site http://www.gygsc.org.uk/Results/2024/2024Spring.htm