Crouch log

6:50pm Tuesday 13th May 2008

Wednesday evening was perfect for sailing with a breeze and sunshine - enough to tempt some sailors out of their winter garb. The course, which had a windward leg to No 5 and then was a zigzag up to Canewdon and back to No. 5 for the faster boats meant long spinnaker legs and then some close reaching. The competitors were keen at the start with two boats being over the line for the Class 1&2 start and only Quencher went back. There was tight sailing in the Hunter 707s with Baby Beluga leading for most of the race only to be overtaken by Racehorse on the penultimate leg, and beaten by 19 seconds. The same was true of the Squib fleet where Trophoblast had the upper hand until they went aground and Lady Penelope managed to get past them and win the race by a minute with Spoof another minute and behind them.

The weekend was superb again with sunshine and a gentle but sustained sailing breeze. The Dragons were the biggest number of starters with 14 as they have all returned from racing abroad. Rob Campbell had a successful weekend winning on both Saturday and Sunday. With one race to go, he is one point ahead of Scorpio for the Saturday Spring series and one point ahead of Avalanche in the Sunday Spring series.

The RBODs were out in force, with 9 now on the water and 7 racing on Saturday. Geraldine's first outing ended shortly after the start as she ran hard aground off one of the new inlets on the south shore created as a bird sanctuary. Red Jacket had a good start and then pulled away from the rest of the fleet as they short tacked along the South shore with a fast in coming tide. She was chased hard by Blue Jacket and Annette but never made a mistake and won the race comfortably. On Sunday the RBODs had their annual team race against the Royal Thames Yacht Club which, although it was a tight match, the home side won quite comfortably with 5.75 points.

Sunday, again perfect with sailors in shorts and t-shirts - an unusual sight in May, was the last of the Spring series for the Crouch Yacht Club. The boats were sent up to Canewdon with a couple of turns around Fairway buoys No 3 and No 15. Last week's winner Gambit ran hard aground on the lump off Creeksea and retired but the other boats enjoyed the conditions. Duncan Hayley in Double Trouble had an excellent race winning by 50 seconds on corrected time from Russ Smith's Zipper with The Geek, Ian Langston and Dave Kemp in third. This gave Double Trouble the series, with Zipper second and Harvest Moon third. Last week we reported that Amazon had won the Harrison Shield when in fact it was Nick Poole in Gambit (apologies).

The RS Elites enjoyed the weekend's sailing having a training session with Mike Macnamara of the RYA who had come down for the weekend. The fleet enjoyed his valuable input and had a social and informative weekend.

A family who won a prize donated to the Burnham Carnival by the Royal Burnham Yacht Club are to take their day trip on Friday aboard the RBYC Commodore's successful EAORA yacht Titian.

Burnham Sailing Club Ferryman Insurance Wednesday Evening Spring series Race 5 RS Elites 3 starters: 1 Oink Squeal D Wood 2 Aeolus D Brown Sports Boats 5 starters: 1 Racehorse R Bavin 2 Baby Beluga J Lewis 3 Joe Bob J Saunders/R Taylor/G Walker Class 1 2 startesr: 1 Quencher R Noble 2 Eclipse C Cherry Class 2 2 starters: 1 Zipper R Smith Class 3 5 starters: 1 Tsunami N Cole 2 Stiletto C Petrie 3 Chorus Line A Heel Squibs 5 starters: 1 Lady Penelope M Hutchings 2 Trophoblast C Goodfellow 3 Spoof S Griffin Handicap 8 starters: 1 Feva T Adams 2 Laser Radial Ben Harden 3 Laser Radial Gemma Ball Toppers 8 starters: 1 Robbie Hooper 2 Isobel Turbin 3 Oliver Julien Optimists 13 starters: 1 Jake Braybrook 2 Joshua Aldridge 3 Chay Taylor Saturday 10th May RBYC line Dragons 14 starters: 1 Quicksilver III R Campbell 2 Avalanche M&M Wade 3 Scorpio I Gray Squibs 10 starters: 1 Guy Fawkes P Aspinall 2 Neuphar A Carley 3 Lady Penelope M Hutchings Hunter 707 2 starters: 1 Racehorse R Bavin 2 Black Sheep A Woodhill RBOD 7 starters: 1 Red Jacket T&C Herring 2 Blue Jacket D Beale 3 Annette T Chambers Sunday 11th Dragons 12 starters: 1 Quicksilver III R Campbell 2 Avalanche M&M Wade 3 Hand of Fortune M Holmes Squibs 5 starters: 1 Spoof S Griffin 2 Lady Penelope 3 Soopa Doopa Flooka A Fluker On Tuesday 8 of the HDRC club met and completed 12 races at their Southminster home. Neil Fulcher was the clear winner with 16 points, Phil Newman was second with 20 and Nick Milton not far behind on 23. Although it wasn't the best of evenings for Pete Hutchings, he is still leading the series with 9 points - although with 14 races, it is early days yet.

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