Category: Reports 2019

A delightlyfully bright sunny morning and a forecast force 4 straight along the Broad, saw 32 boats take to the water for the first race at Rollesby on Sunday 17^th February.

With a slightly lighter breeze in reality, the 9 multi-sails were first away; it took a little while for the fleet to settle into an order, but Steve Grey quite rightly led after a lap in his D-One. With a long run it looked like Dave Houghton & Jon Symonds and John Saddington & Dennis Manning flying their spinnakers would have a big advantage, but it was Ian & Sharon Ayres taking a wider route in their Leader who led the main pack at this point. The Wayfarers showed their pace upwind with Houghton eventually winning from Ayres and Saddington.
Those spinnakers paid more as the wind rose in race two however Peter and Eileen Dearnley sailing without a kite were flying up the beats and split the other Wayfarers to take second from Houghton this time around.

In the single-handers with 23 boats on the line a clean start was clearly in order; David Frary (Finn) and Mike McNamara (Harrier) were able to use their additional boatspeed to establish a small lead on the first beat, however the midfleet were ignoring handicaps and swapping places regularly. Richard Brown and James Letts represented the Laser push early on with Daniel Bull catching them on the second lap, however as the race progressed they were losing out to the Solos of Robert Hawkins and Terry Palme, indeed had Palmer not misread the finish they would have been 1 & 2 but instead they were split by McNamara. The increased breeze in race 2 saw Frary put the hammer down and establish a good lead, however Phil Highfield in the ‘family’ Streaker had other ideas downwind as he came back at the leaders on every lap to eventually tie with Frary for the win, with McNamara 3^rd and Brown 4^th.

The good weather encouraged 16 starters for the mixed afternoon race and there were two distinct bunches, the Wayfarers, with three boats less than a minute apart and the Solos whose first three finished within 15 seconds of each other! But who would come out on top; it looked like a Houghton win and indeed it was but Dearnley and Saddington had to wait for the calculated results to confirm they had indeed beaten the Solos by a very narrow margin.

Multisails
Race 1 (9 entries)

1. Dave Houghton & John Symonds (Wayfarer)
2. Ian & Sharon Ayres (Leader)
3. John Saddington & Dennis Manning (Wayfarer)

Race 2 (9)

1. Dave Houghton & John Symonds (Wayfarer)
2. Peter & Eileen Dearnley (Wayfarer)
3. John Saddington & Dennis Manning (Wayfarer)

SingleHanders
Race 1 (23 entries)

1. Robert Hawkins (Solo)
2. Mike McNamara (Harrier)
3. Terry Palmer (Solo)
4. David Frary (Finn)

Race 2 (19)

1. Phil Highfield (Streaker)

1. David Frary (Finn)

3. Mike McNamara (Harrier)
4. Richard Brown (Laser)

Mixed PM Race 3 (16)

1. Dave Houghton & John Symonds (Wayfarer)
2. Peter & Eileen Dearnley (Wayfarer)
3. John Saddington & Dennis Manning (Wayfarer)

After a short delay for some deliberation a small fleet of seven boats set out for the one and only race in definitely top end racing conditions at Rollesby Broad on Sunday January 13 th .

Several competitors were so keen they decided to start racing 5 minutes early; with only two starting at the proper time Race Officer Chris Mann felt sympathetic to the others and abandoned for a proper restart. With a wipe-out squall taking out the entire four strong Laser contingent in the last minute before the restart – led in performance by Daniel ‘I can stand my Laser on its bow!’ Bull – none of them made it to the windward mark …..

Ian Ayres (Solo) and Tamsin Highfield (Streaker) started overlapped on starboard but mid-beat had to duck Matt Boreham (Solo) who had taken the opposite route. Ayres reached the windward mark a couple of boat lengths in front; Highfield tried to pinch the mark and on a lighter day would probably not have got rolled in to windward as the wind backed on her!
Boreham had to take a rapid avoidance action and the race looked decided. Ayres slowly extended away but Boreham had a brief ‘wet moment’ allowing Highfield to catch up before her second capsize left her narrowly in third.

Having spent nearly an hour on the water to get in a 30 minute race the fleet retired for an early and well needed lunch!…..

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Single Handers
Race 1 (7 entries)
Ian Ayres (Solo)
Matt Boreham (Solo)
Tamsin Highfield (Streaker)

Perhaps encouraged by the relatively mild weather; and certainly by the excellent catering; an impressive fleet of 30 dinghies, including 5 visitors, came to the line for the annual New Year’s Day open meeting at Rollesby Broad SC.

With the wind direction not quite cooperating, a long opening fetch was set with the start line at the far end of the broad. Daniel Bull put his Laser somewhat riskily at the more sheltered windward end of the line, with Paul Wren (Phantom) and Ian Ayres (Solo) starting mid line but above the main pack of boats that ended up losing out by covering each other. Wren led round the first lap from Bull and Ayres. Only Mike McNamara in his Harrier managed catch them on the water to finish second with Ayres taking a big handicap win. Veronica Falat (Steaker) led Ben Falat in his Phantom for much of the race to take third at the front of a close knit pack.

The wind increased for a shorter race 2 giving the faster craft a chance to stretch out in front.

Veronica sailed really well to hold on to the transoms of the faster boats and take the narrowest of wins (3 seconds) from Ben with Wren 3^rd, McNamara 4^th and Ayres 5^th, just 27 seconds covering these five on handicap…

The sun came out in the afternoon as the wind rose a little more. Daniel Harvey and Andy Smith nailed the start in Wayfarer 1804 to be third behind Richard Fryer (RS300) and McNamara round the first two marks. Ben Falat worked his way through well as the faster three craft took out a big lead on the water. McNamara won with Dave Houghton enjoying the heavier breeze to bring his Wayfarer home second ahead of the Falat family; Ben followed by Veronica in third and fourth.

Overall Results (30 Entries)

1. Mike McNamara (Harrier) – 3 pts
2. Veronica Falet (Streaker) – 4
3. Ben Falet (Phantom) – 5
4. Ian Ayres (Solo) – 6
5. Paul Wren (Phantom ) – 7
6. Dave Houghton (Wayfarer) – 11
7. Phil Highfield (Solo) – 11
8. Richard Fryer (RS300) – 14
9. Matt Boreham (Solo) – 15
10. Daniel Bull (Laser) – 16
11. Tamsin Highfield (Streaker) – 20
12. Terry Palmer (Solo) – 21
13. Val Hanson (Wayfarer) – 22
14. Stuart Highfield (Laser) – 25
15. John Saddington (Albacore) – 26
16. Daniel Harvey (Wayfarer) – 27
17. Bob Sparrow (Wayfarer) – 28
18. Steve Leigh (Solo) – 29
19. Keith Sykes (Laser) – 30
20. Richard Brown (Radial) – 32
21. James Letts (Laser) – 34
22. Phil Alison (Solo) – 37
23. Mike Horwitz (Solo) – 37
24. Chris Codling (Radial) – 41
25. Vince Steele (Solo) – 44
26. Phil Harlow (Wayfarer) – 48
27. Tom Quale (Laser) – 50