8-hour race at Middle Nene Sailing Club
by Wilf Kunze 19 Jul 2022 22:13 PDT
16 July 2022
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Middle Nene SC on Saturday, 16th July the club re-introduced a long-distance team race, a trophy which was last contested in 2008.
It took the format of a team race for which volunteers were randomly allocated to each of the three boats in the race. In all 21 sailors participated, with a lively crowd cheering them on from the shore. The crews were a good mix, mostly coming from MNSC's experienced Flying 15, Solo and RS200 fleets, with a few visitors also taking part. Special mention must be made of Esme Hatsell (10), a proficient RS Tera sailor, who was the youngest contestant and competently helmed her mini-keelboat round the triangular course.
Following the start at 10am in very light, changeable winds and with the Illusions being a very closely controlled one-design class, it was initially a very tight race. However, later in the afternoon, the change-over speeds and the crews' sailing skills started to play a greater role and ultimately, at 6pm, team GBR108 headed by Matt Yallop won, with GBR82 (Tony Wright) second and GBR138 (Dave Jarvis) third.
It is planned to make the long-distance team race a regular feature at MNSC which from next year will also be open to visiting boats/teams, and for 2023 Saturday, 15th July, has been 'pencilled in' as the race day. Details will be published in good time.
The next event for Illusions will be the MNSC Open Meeting and Inland Championship on Saturday, 3rd September 2022. For further details, please check the club website www.middlenenesc.co.uk or send an email to .