Thorpe Bay Yacht Club TT : Winter Series
Saturday 3rd February 2018

So Saturday February 3rd dawned cold and damp, some of our visitors had traveled up on Friday (Ed, Jan, Liam & Heather), a few more arrived Saturday morning. Unfortunately I had forgotten to book one of two essential elements of sailing, WIND. We all rigged our boats but to no avail. By 11am the event was canned as the forecast was well dire. It turned out to be the correct decision as no wind arrived all day.

Sorry to the visitors who made a big effort to turn up, Steve Sawford, Paul Grattage, Paul Craft, Ed Tuite Dalton, Liam Thom, Heather Knowles, Jon Pearse & Jan Elfring.

Race Officer Howard Warrington announced he would run an unofficial TT on the Sunday for those that could stay. Unfortunately for the visitors who were unable to sail on Sunday morning a brisk northerly was blowing. Howard and Steve Hopper set off in a rib to the furthest point of the Thorpe Bay sailing area and set a good course for the club race plus the Sprint TT competitors. 

Race 1. 10 Sprint 15s started with Jim Bowie, Darren Fitchew & Chris Tillyer battling round together for about an hour all taking the lead at some point during the race. At the gun it was Chris, Jim & Darren.

Race 2. and we were down to 9, Chris & Jim managed to get away a bit in this race with Jenny Ball keeping a watchful eye on us in third. Notable moment in this race was Darren trying a port hand flyer at the start but ending up having to go behind everyone including the committee boat and for Gary & Gerald Sverdloff coming together at the last mark of the last lap which ended up with Gerald having a very long swim (apparently it was all Gary's fault !!). In the end Chris was 1st, Jim 2nd & Jenny 3rd.

Race 3. and we are down to 8. Again Chris & Jim lead with Jenny ready to pounce on any errors. Chris ended up 1st, Jim 2nd & Jenny 3rd.

Many thanks to the whole Thopre Bay team for putting on a great day's sailing and spending 2½ hours on the water. Next year we will try to balance out the wind over the weekend and hopefully will run as expected. Thanks to Steve Sawford for my lovely new sail.

Chris Tillyer