Shearwater Open Meeting at the Catamaran Yacht Club, Sheppey

The Shearwater Travellers Trophy held its 6th Flexifoil International sponsored event at the Catamaran Yacht Club on the Isle of Sheppey over the weekend of the 30th and 31st September. This was the first time that the Shearwaters had visited for some 20 or so years and the club organised a superb event both on and off the water showing great enthusiasm and organisation to ensure an excellent weekend was had by all.

Races 1 & 2 were sailed on Saturday either side of high tide, over a traditional Olympic course of Triangle / Sausage, in light and variable winds.

Race 1 saw the fleet split on the beat with John and Clifford Hill sailing "Space Odysseys" making the early running followed closely by Alan and Jenny Howland sailing "Cajensa et Cat et Al" and Roger and Bonnie Crooks sailing "Ruby". These 3 fought for the lead for the first 2 legs, but with the fleet again splitting on the second reach Shaun and Dion Allen sailing "Rumblefish" were able to squeeze by into the lead going onto the beat, a position they managed to hold for some time. However with the wind dying, and the tide featuring more, Cajensa et Al et Jen were able to break through to take a good lead, followed by Ruby and Space Odysseys. The race finishing in that order.

Race 2 was sailed immediately after race 1 and with the tide now running hard the start line was congested, with the early arrivers being pushed over the line, causing some confusion over recalls. Greg Wilcox and Ben Farnborough sailing "Foreigner" capitalised on this and led at the windward mark, with Ruby and Rumblefish once again following. The race settled into a battle between these three with Ruby and Rumblefish slowly gaining on Foreigner, with both finally squeezing by to give Ruby the win followed by Rumblefish with Foreigner 3rd and Cajensa et Al et Jen again showing excellent light airs ability to take 4th.

Sunday dawned grey (again) and with a solid breeze, and a forecast of lots more wind for later in the day, so the race committee decided to change the format to again be 2 races back to back, and as Saturday sailed over a traditional triangle / sausage course.

Once again the fleet split on the first beat with the right hand side just paying. Richard Hamblin and Catherine Howland sailing "Airflow" led at the windward mark followed by Neil Struys and Charlotte Duck sailing "New Flame" and Geoff and Daniel Tindale sailing "Eternal Flame". Airflow hung onto the lead until the first sausage where they got the angles wrong allowing New Flame and Eternal Flame to pass them, and Rumblefish and Foreigner to close. The race developed into a hotly fought battle between these 5 with New Flame holding onto the lead, but never far ahead of the other 4 with Foreigner passing Airflow, and Rumblefsh showing excellent upwind speed to get up to 2nd briefly. Going into the final windward mark it was to close to call between New Flame, Eternal Flame and Foreigner with Airflow just behind, Rumblefish having unfortunately taken a swim half way up the beat in the ever increasing and gusty conditions. Approaching the mark Eternal Flame and Airflow were just laying the mark on Starboard with Foreigner coming in on Port and New Flame to leeward, also on starboard. Foreigner was forced to under tack Eternal Flame to try to squeeze up to the mark, and with New Flame tacking to make the mark there was a collision which forced both Foreigner and New Flam to retire, allowing Eternal Flame to round first followed closely by Airflow. These 2 split on the run to the finish and Airflow was able to just squeeze ahead on the line to take the win, followed by Eternal Flame 2nd and, as a result of the 3 retirements behind, Space Odysseys took third followed by Nigel Stuart and Duncan Speak sailing "Cajensa also" in 4th.

With the wind increasing only 6 boats stayed out for race 4. With a wind shift on the line a number of people were unable to cross and were forced to tack or gybe round to start allowing Derek Williams and Jamie Farnborough sailing "UFO" to take a commanding lead followed by Rumblefish and Eternal Flame. These 3 continued to extend the lead whilst Cajensa et Al et Jen and Airflow battled for 4th and 5th behind them. UFO sailed an excellent race to remain untroubled in the lead whilst Eternal Flame was snapping at the heels of Rumblefish, who again showed excellent upwind speed to hold them off and, at the finish, UFO took a well deserved win, followed by Rumblefish and Eternal Flame, with Airflow just pipping Cajensa et Al et Jen for 4th.

Overall Results:

More Information:

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