After a short delay to await a little wind, 10 stalwarts took to the water for the first of the May day Series. Sailing a parallelogram course with very patchy wind, only the 29er of the Dyers maintained pace throughout with the 2000 of Laurie and the rest in Lasers struggling to find the pockets. Getting the weight forward was key as well as efficient tacking to maintain momentum through the turns to prevent the flooding tide from reducing gains quickly. Ben, Alan and Guy led the chase field throughout interspersed with the 2000 but nobody was catching the Dyers. It took over an hour to complete 2 laps if you weren’t in the 29er.
With a band of wind showing parallel to the shore and a sea breeze emerging, the race team changed the course to a sausage and all boats made progress in race 2. While the Dyers flew ahead again, Sam occasionally making it out on the trapeze, the Lasers and 2000 found individual battles to maintain the fun down the field, Alan showed his experience in leading the chase pack. it was all too much for Laurie and an early bath was preferred for the 2000 crew. Race 3 saw the sea breeze arrive fully and proper sailing emerged with most sailors enjoying a work out to catch a glimpse of the Dyers over the horizon. A fishing line proved a difficult obstacle for Andy and Guy, both being stopped in the water as it fouled their daggerboards and rudders. Alan and Ben had a close tussle for second throughout with Alan being victorious and Andy and Gary fought a close race near the back. Guy proved he needs clew strap tying lessons as it came undone and his boom fell of at the end of the first lap! So a successful series as the wind increased over the 3 hours of sailing. Three firsts for the Dyers saw them through a very deserved winners with Alan and Ben runners up in their Lasers. Special note for Ben G who placed well in all 3 races. Thanks to my race team for stepping up at the last moment - it was a good day at HBSC. Race report 2nd April
Well it was a damp Squib on Easter Sunday with everyone being towed home but on Monday it was Crackers! The southerly winds made for a blustery day and lots of capsizes. Race Officer Phil Rees set a testing course with a good beat and 3 reaches that entailed a couple of testing gybes. The safety boat was whizzing around like a BAF with most people getting going again before we got there. The lead was constantly changing as one crash followed another. A couple of people got bumped on the head, a boom snapped and one helm needed to be picked up and returned to his dinghy after falling out and getting left behind. Apparently the RYA MOB procedure does not work with Performance Sailboats! In the meanwhile Graham and Gary in their Lasers fought their way round 6 exhausting laps with the Radial of Gary finally winning the laurels both on the water and on handicap. A victory of discretion over enthusiasm! The 29er of the Dyer boys won the battle of number of capsizes over Luke and Doug in the RS200 and so the RS clocked up a creditable 3rd place with the 29er 4th. All credit to the Ekins boys for battling the elements until the conditions forced them into retiring. Game on. The season has arrived. RdL The last races of the season have been sailed with 8 boats enjoying the October sun. The results for the entire year are here, subject to final checking by Ben Skull (HALsail tsar) and the Sailing Committee before prize giving.
We are compiling a list of championships and open events hosted by Herne Bay Sailing Club. Can you add to this list? 1957 National Firefly single-handed championships 1958 National Firefly single-handed championships 1960 Firefly National Championships 1965 National Firefly championships 1967 National Albacore championships. 1968 Fireball Open 1969 Fireball Open 1971 Hornet Worlds 11-17 September 1972 Albacore National Championships 1973 OK National Championships 1974 Mirror Southern Areas 1975 Hornet National Championships 1977 OK National Championships 1977 Albacore & Hornets Open Meeting 1979 Firefly National Championships 1981/2 Round table regatta 198? Fireball 1982 Albacore National Championships 1985 Albacore World and National Championships (held over a fortnight) 1987 ish National Championships 1989 Lark Class National Championship 5-11 August 1989 Albacores 1993 Fireball Open 1999 Pacer Nationls 2001 Pacer Nationals 2001 Round Three of the popular European North Sea Cup Series of windsurfing 9-10 June 2001 Finn Nationals 29 August 2001 OK Nationals 2002 National Albacore Class National Championship 3-5 August 2002 International OK Dinghy Eastern Championship 3-4 August 2002 Man of Kent 22 September (and at least two others) 2002 Pacer Nationals 10 September 2003 Pacer Nationals 2004 Catamaran Open Festival 19-20 June 2004 Hobie 16 TT 19-20 June 2005 Laser 2000 Millenium Series and Asymmetric Dinghy Open 2-3 July 2006 ISO Open 24-25 June 2007 Boss, Spice, Buzz and Iso National Championship 25-27 August 2008 RS Vision Open 17 May 2009 RS All Comers Regatta for RS Visions, RS Teras, RS Qbas and RS Fevas 20-21 June 2009 Hornet Nationals 5-6 September 2009 Europe Nationals 5-6 September 2010 UK Laser Association Laser 4.7 Ladder 9-10 October 2010 Hornet Final Fling 9-10 October 2011 Hornet Open 2-3 July 2015 UK Windsurfing Association National Championships Round 3 4-5 July 2015 National 12 Burton Week 22-25 August 2016 UK Windsurfing Association Cup 2 11-12 June 2016 Hornet Europeans & UK National Championship 6-9 August 2017 UK Windsurfing Association Cup 4 15-16 July 2017 OK Dinghy National Championship 21-24 September There's a full report in Yachts and Yachting on the OK National Championships at HBSC by Karen Robertson with photographs by Champion Marine Photography.
The weekend's activities in numbers.
Saturday:
Sunday:
Yachts and Yachting has an article about the OK Nationals at HBSC.
The SIs for the OK Nationals at Herne Bay Sailing Club may be found here. 5.1 The schedule of races: Date Tide: BST Race/event Time/warning signal Wed 20th Equipment inspection 17.30 –19.30 Thurs 21st 14.09 (6.00m) Equipment Inspection 09:00 – 11.30 Registration 09.30 – 11.30 Competitor Briefing 12.00 Race 1 Warning 13.55 Race 2 ASAP after race 1 Friday 22nd 1445 (6.04m) Race 3 Warning 10.55 Race 4 ASAP after race 3 Saturday 23rd 15.20 (6.00m) Race 5 Warning 10.55 Race 6 ASAP after race 7 Sunday 24th 15.54 (5.86m Race 7 Warning 09.55 Race 8 ASAP after race 7 Prize giving ASAP after racing A record breaking Bank Holiday!!
24 boats took to the water. 8 from Hampton Pier YC and a great turnout of 16 boats from HBSC. Ace Race Officer Golton set a testing course and the Northeasterly confounded the fleet by edging round to southeast (probably a sea breeze coming across from Broadstairs). 2 races were sailed back to back in beautiful sunny weather and a breeze of 8/12 knots. Events on the start line showed that the competitive spirit was high and the variable winds gave opportunities for gaining and losing places especially on the beats. The Vago of Mark and Elliot got the better of the Hampton Vago and the Albacore of Smithy made an appearance and did not disappoint even with Magda in the engine room and scored a bullet and a 4th. Richard’s Radial got the better of most of the Lasers with a 2nd and 6th whilst the Dyer boys improved on their 3rd in the first race with a bullet in the second. Laurie’s 2000 was also consistent at the top of the fleet and Allan McNeil’s Wayfarer did really well with a late crew change that catapulted William Hogben into the hot crewseat. Overall we were much stronger than Hampton across the fleet but it was sailed in good spirit and lovely to see an old Dirror Minghy making a showing. Hampton put on a lovely spread for us with delicious homemade cakes and sandwiches and their Commodore thanked our Race Officer for a good course and presented our Vice-Commodore, David Hogben, with the Trophy who in turn presented Hampton’s 14 year old Cadet, Harry Newton with the lovely silver Top Cadet Trophy for his efforts in his Topper. We hope that this Trophy award will encourage Cadets to participate in greater numbers in years to come. Eleven boats took to the water in a freshening breeze which turned out to be a great leveller. That is, most crews enjoyed the swim as they brought their craft back to upright following some heavy gusts that defeated their resolve to stay upright.
Some did better than others with the King's School team of Laurie and Jo topping the charts in both races . The Dyer boys flew round the course with abandon claiming a 2nd and a 3rd in the 29er. Well done to them the previous week in taking 2nd in their National Championships only being pipped by a single point. Smithy took a 2nd in the first race and Graham Harbord a hard earned 3rd in the second race. Gary deserves mention for completing both races as the conditions became very gusty and inconsistent as did Eddie Burnett our virgin Laser Racer so a big well done to him. The original results posted on the board were incorrect and the revised ones are on the website now. Finally congratulations to Gary for winning the series with some very consistent sailing throughout the series. Change in the Sailing Programme Please note that next week we begin the Autumn Series when we are trialling the 3 race format in place of the regular 2 races. This means we will run shorter timed races of about 30 minutes and reduce times between races. If you are less than half way round the course when the shorten signal sounds you are instructed to return to the starting area and not finish the lap. Your result will be based on the laps completed using average lap times. Start time is 2pm . If you have a duty then you will have been given an earlier time so you need to arrive in good time for a 2pm start please. The Programme has been altered to take account of the changes brought about by the rescheduling of the Memorial weekend and the OK Nationals so you may need to look at the website or the schedule posted in the clubhouse to bring you up to date. Duties You have a week to select your duties for the second half of the season now. We need people to sign up for 3 duties to cover all activities so please look at your diaries and get into dutyman to select your dates. If you are not bothered then we will randomly select dates for you. Thank you. Training Store The training store has been misused and we have changed the door entry to the fob system with restricted entry only. The training equipment is for use for RYA Course and other Club training activities plus hired out boats and equipment. As such it needs to meet RYA standards. Thanks to hard work by our instructors we have set up and organised the store and it is upsetting to come and find equipment dumped in a pile and wet suits etc. not hung up correctly. If you do use Training equipment it should be returned to the appropriate racks and hangers as labelled. Your wetsuits and buoyancy aids should be washed in the showers and returned to the store to hang and dry. The next user will thank you. Regards Richard |
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