St George's Cup

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.