Due to the determination of a few we managed to get our ‘Thursday Finale’ sail. With last week’s weather best suited to the surfers, this week’s proved much better despite the odd downpour prior to sailing. Four eager crews rigged their boats with Ed launching his recently acquired Sunfish for the first time on the sea. Some may not have heard of the Sunfish but surprisingly it’s outsold the Laser dinghy by far with nearly half a million sold since its introduction in the early 50’s, although most are in the USA.
Following the last downpour the wind had just about died however, by the time we launched the wind was a pleasant F2 from the SSW and the flood tide made short work of the beat.
After lap one the two lasers were heading the fleet with Dave inches ahead of Harry as they rounded the gate with Adrian, who opted not to fly his spinny on the run just behind.
After lap two Dave was just ahead of Adrian who was now using his spinny but the wind strength made for a tricky decision as to soak or close reach and pick up some boat speed.
After lap three Adrian crossed the gate still flying his spinny mistakenly thinking it was the finish, by the time he had dropped it Dave had rounded the gate and opened up a small gap which he held to the finish although Adrian closed the gap considerable. Not too far behind was Harry who claimed second spot on corrected time.
With the light fading we sailed back to the shore, the transition from light to darkness has become noticeably shorter. By the time we had packed the boats up it was dark, made worse by some impressive cloud cover.
Big thanks goes to Lorna and Phil who offered to run the racing despite having an eight hour drive the next day! Also to Keith and Michael who assisted in launching and getting back up the beach after racing and to Hugh and his quad bike, who towed the RIB back up the beach, probably the fastest we have ever done it!
This year’s lovely weather has provided some great evening sailing, twenty eight races in total and twenty six competitors, most of which were single handed dinghies.
Thought(s) of the day
Don’t forgot your rudder – just ask Adrian
Wetsuit boots are better than trainers when helping people launch – just ask Keith
Apres sail suppers have been enjoyed on most evenings after sailing and this year and we’ve had quite a variety. The evenings starting off with Chef Brown’s infamous ‘Butcher’ pies but later we opted for a few different options including Lasagne, Pizzas, BBQ, Chinese takeaways and tonight we opted for the traditional Fish and Chip supper, thanks to Phil for organising this.
On returning to shore we heard the sad news of the passing of Her Majesty. She served dutifully and graciously during her long 70-year reign and her dedication and legacy will continue to live on. Our heartfelt condolences are with The Royal Family.
Pictures – GYGSC’s albums | Flickr
Full results – http://www.gygsc.org.uk/Results/2022/2022Thursday Finale
