Red Sands Race Sunday18th June 2017

With the hottest day of the year so far forecast, 6 boats assembled for the 07.30 start. The slight breeze gave the impression there was a chance of it building, but instead of strengthening it became patchy. Various tactical manoeuvres to try to get to the ripples on the water kept most of the fleet fairly close together with April Rose somehow managing to gain a slight lead. On leaving Halstow Creek, Jeddo clocked 1.4Kts on the GPS. Only trouble was it was sideways on the ebb tide, but it closed the gap with April Rose until getting around Slaughter house Point and dumping and trapping Jeddo in a back eddy to watch the rest of the fleet drift past. About 2 1/2 hours after starting, we had all got out of Stangate Creek and somehow past the moored barges without drifting on to them. The tide slowly carried us along the River towards Sheerness. April Rose managed to maintain their slight advantage and when ripples on the water seemed to be working towards us were the first to get advantage from the breeze. Then it reached Marie Louise and Aragorn. Jeddo still sitting stationary near Queenborough Spit could only watch as the gap increased, but eventually a little amount of breeze filled the sails and a bit of steerage returned. Azurian and Nerides 3 weren't as lucky and continued to drift in the Medway. Once clear of Garrison Point the breeze rose to about 13Kts and the battle was on to play catch up. Unfortunately by the time Arurian and Neriedes 3 escaped the Medway there was insufficient time for them to have any chance of completing the course, so retired. The rest of us continued on what was a fairly leisurely sail.

Boat PY Corrected time Start time Finish time Ellapsed Place New Time Time Time Time Aragorn 1177 09:43:33 07:35:00 19:01:50 11:26:50 1st MARIE LOUISE 1016 10:16:09 07:35:00 18:01:00 10:26:00 2nd APRIL ROSE 1036 10:20:49 07:35:00 18:18:10 10:43:10 3rd Jeddo 1026 10:35:19 07:35:00 18:26:50 10:51:50 4th Weather mainly sunny variable mostly East 0-3 Did not finish NERIDESE 3 AZURIAN

Charity Race Sunday 11th June 2017

Sunday turned out a very breezy day with the SW wind gusting to 30kts. The uncertain weather forecast meant we only had two groups of visitors and 3 club boats attending.

The two groups of visitors joined Marie Louis and Jeddo. Marie Louise took a lady and two young boys whilst Jeddo took Nobby, the tractor owner that assisted us with most of our launches this Spring and 3 members of his friends and family. A 4th member and his two young children decided it was unsafe to sail his own boats singlehanded with the young children, so joined Catherine 2. In addition Malcolm and his Topper came out, but kept fairly close to the club. He was seen to have at least one capsize.

It was decided that it was too windy to attempt to race with our inexperienced visitors, so we sailed under head sails only to the top of Stangate Creek and motored back.

After securing the boats we all went ashore for a BBQ ready and waiting for us cooked by Rod.

Our visitors all said they had a fantastic time and would like to come back next year.

Sorry no photos, I even took my camera, but forgot to get any pictures.

Top of the Tide Races 13th & 14th May 2017

13^th May 2017

 

With very blustery conditions only Aragorn, Cognitus and Pyewacket lined up to start. With the conditions the race was abandoned.

 

 

14^th May 2017

 

Much better conditions saw 9 boats on the start line. The wind became quite variable in direction towards the end.

 

 

 

Boat	PY	Corrected time	Start time	Finish time	Elapsed time	Place
CATHERINE 2	1325	01:12:05	14:25:00	16:00:30	01:35:30	1st
MARIE LOUISE	1016	01:13:00	14:25:00	15:39:10	01:14:10	2nd
Topper	1290	01:13:15	14:25:00	15:59:30	01:34:30	3rd
Pyewacket	1127	01:15:39	14:25:00	15:50:15	01:25:15	4th
Shearwater	1118	01:15:47	14:25:00	15:49:44	01:24:44	5th
Jeddo	1026	01:17:34	14:25:00	15:44:35	01:19:35	6th
Cognitus	1026	01:24:23	14:25:00	15:51:35	01:26:35	7th
AZURIAN	1003	01:24:45	14:25:00	15:50:00	01:25:00	8th
Weather Sunny SSW 4-5
Did not finish
Girouette