Seasalter Sailing Club

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Open Event : Shearwater and Catapult TT

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Catapult Class Associations Event Report

2nd - 3rd June 2007 Shearwater TT Report 

Again this event was well attended. 

We had 11 boats out on each day. 

On Saturday the wind was blowing about force 3, and as a result we got some fantastic pictures. 

As the winds  were so light, there were no capsizes or pitch poles. 

In First 2 Races of  the weekend, a square course was set by Jeff Kiddle The Race Officer. 

The Results Day 1 :

Race 1:

1st - G & A Tindale (2003)

2nd - A. Howland & J. Allen (2006)

3rd - D & G Williams (2004) 

Race 2:

1st - A. Howland & J. Allen (2006)

2nd - G & A Tindale (2003)

3rd -  S & D Allen (2005) 

On The Sunday Jeff set a Triangle and a Sausage Course, The Wind Was a little Stronger then the Previous Day, But Still No one Capsized, In fact the only Thing That Had to be rescued was one of our new Patrol Boats (Has now been Sorted out).

 The Results Day 2:

Race 3:

1st - G & A Tindale (2003)

2nd - A. Howland & J. Allen (2006)

3rd - D & G Williams (2004) 

Race 4:

1st - A. Howland & J. Allen (2006)

2nd - G & A Tindale (2003)

3rd - D & G Williams (2004)

Overall Results:

 1st - A. Howland & J. Allen (2006)

2nd - G & A Tindale (2003)

3rd - D & G Williams (2004) 

A BIG thank you needs to go out to all those who have helped throughout this event. But in particular: 

Social:

Lesley Stafford, Dave Lincoln, Sue   Hadaway - Galley

Dave Stafford and Lynn Reynolds - Bar 

Sailing:

Jeff Kiddle -  Race Officer

Steve Willis -  organiser

Joan Willis - Reception

And All The Patrol Boat Crews And Helms!

8-9th July 2006 - Shearwater TT

There was racing on the Saturday, however I was not there to observe it so no race report as Yet.

However, I Can tell you that there were 16 Shearwaters, including one from the Club sailed by Kevin Dutch and Ben Saunders 'Delirious'.

This boat was recently restored by Ben, but he had missed one piece of rotten wood so one of the hulls was filling up with water while they were racing.

On the Sunday only 4 boats ventured out as the wind speed had increased from the Saturday!

eventually the races were abandoned due to the wind strengh.

Click here for the photos of the TT

17th-18th May 2003

No club members currently sail either of these classes of boat, although many club members have sailed shearwaters in the past, but we always welcome and very much enjoy the visit by both of these catamaran classes to Seasalter. This year proved to be a very windy and eventful weekend, which saw much excitement for those club members running the patrol boats and tower.

A non sailing event worthy of note was the fly-past by the last flying Lancaster bomber in the UK. This was commemorating the dambusters raid in WWII. This was especially poignant for me because my grandfather worked on the bombers design at AVRO in Manchester.

OVERALL RESULTS :

Shearwater Class : 1st Ben & Jamie Farnborough (1990), 2nd Daniel Tindale & Lee Saunders (1987), 3rd Greg & Alex Wilcox (1998)

Catapult Class : 1st Cliff Antill (17), 2nd L.Stevens (504), 3rd  A.Montgomery (1)

Photo Gallery

Race reports by Martin Searle (on board 'Seasalter Two' Patrol Boat)

(I apologize for the lack of detail in the reports but as it turns out we were pre-occupied with capsizes & Man over-boards ! to be able to really take note of what was happening in the races. Seasalter two was tasked with covering the beat and run legs of the course). Shearwater and Catapult Class Associations please feel free to email me your race reports for the event and I'll put them up on this site.

17th May 13.00hrs

Weather : Cloudy, Wind : 20-30mph (Force 5 - 6), Air Temp : 14c, Sea State : Calm

Race Team : Jeff Kiddle, Steve & Joan Willis, Chris Stafford, Bob Walker, Martin Searle, Chris Wilson

The conditions on this day could only be described as challenging, but otherwise very nice cat sailing weather.

No of Competitors : 12 Shearwaters and  6 Catapults. 

Race 1 : Got underway slightly late from a committee boat start at the start of the beat. The two classes each had their own fleet start with the Shearwaters starting first. The first beat saw the fleet zoom off towards the shore with both crew out on the wire sailing hard. Onto the reach and wow !, tons of spray, massive speed, the boats rounded the gybe mark and shortly thereafter the capsize of the day occurred the crew were able to self right and get underway again. During the first lap  'Genesis' (sailed by the Farnbrough brothers) took a lead that was never to be challenged, although the action behind was both fast and furious. Towards the end of the race 'UFO's jib came unattached from its halyard and the boat required towing ashore. In the pictures below shows 'Genesis' (1990) flying its spinaker on the run and the scene at the end of Race 1, you can see 'UFO' capsized in the water in background whilst its jib halyard is being repaired. 

Shearwater results from race 1 : 1st 'Genesis' B & J Farnbrough (1990),2nd ' Foreigner' A & G Wilcox (1988), 3rd 'Caned and Unable' D. Tindale & L. Saunders (1987)

In the meantime the catapult fleet start had occurred. At the start sail no 10 got into the lead as can be seen by this photograph, click picture to view full size (click back to return here), as can be seen in the next picture the boats had a similar reaching experience to the shearwaters :

However during the ensuing race A.Montgomery (1) managed to open up a lead that was never to be challenged to win. Although Cliff Antill and P.Elms sailed a close race for 2nd and 3rd. No catapult managed to capsize during this race.

Race 1 Catapult Result : 1st A.Montgomery (1), 2nd P.Elms (507), 3rd C.Antill (17)

Race 2 : The wind freshened for the second race several boats from the Shearwater fleet didn't venture out for the second race, but they were joined by 'Delirious' with a rather fetching pink sail. 1 Catapult didn't venture out for this race. The waves had built up with the turn in the tide. Again there was lots of close racing in both fleets but due to the rapidly falling tide and late start the race was truncated to 2 laps. Most of the capsizes occurred during this race with the wind at its peak hence I really don't know what went on in the race !, so I'll just report the results.

Race 2 Catapult Result : 1st A.Montgomery (1), 2nd C.Antill (17), 3rd P.Elms (507)

Race 2 Shearwater Result : 1st 'Genesis' B & L Farnbrough (1990), 2nd 'UFO' D.Williams & C.Duck (19), 3rd 'Foreigner' A & G Wilcox (1988)

Patrol Boat Report : During races 1 & 2 'Seasalter one' dealt with 3 capsizes but all boats self righted and resumed racing without a need for assistance and 'Seasalter two' dealt with 4 capsizes and 1 man over-board. For 1 of the capsizes 'Seasalter two' rendered assistance on request by the crew after that were unsuccessful in righting the boat this was duly rendered. The man over-board incident saw the helm of 'Delirious' falling off after the shackle holding the trapeze loop to the wire came undone. The crew regained control and stopped the boat in the water, 'Seasalter two' picked up the errant helm and re-united him with the boat. 'Seasalter two' also towed 'UFO' back to shore.

Saturday night saw the traditional Seasalter meal and musical entertainment. A good night was had by all and copious quantities of grub was available for those wishing to refuel after an active day on the water. The bar was packed as usual and entertainment was provided by club member Mike Lennon singing popular tunes from the 50's,60's,70's and 80's. Later in the evening members of the Shearwater class commandeered Mike's guitar and let loose their own serenade, apparently it was 'interesting'.

18th May 13.30hrs

Weather : Cloudy,  Wind : 25-35mph (Force 5-7), Air Temp : 14c

Race Team : Jeff Kiddle, Steve & Joan Willis, Chris Stafford, Pat Fulcher, Martin Searle, Bob Walker

Race 3 : This was the weekends windiest race with gusts reaching well into the 30's !. Again there was lots of close racing with a few very dramatic capsizes, the award for the most dramatic one went too 'Take 5' which pitch poled shortly after the gybe mark, the crew were seen to demonstrate perfect superman flight positions as they were thrown into the water !, fortunately there were no injuries and no visible damage to the boat other than a problem with the cunningham which took a minute or two to resolve. Pitch poling seemed the order of the day for the shearwater fleet and several other boats came a cropper on the reach from the gybe mark. Again I cannot describe much of the racing since we were much too busy. But it was very fast and furious and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. 

1 Catapult was dismasted ((A.Forrest(10)) after capsizing after the gybe mark and was towed ashore by 'Seasalter One'. Just 4 Catapults started this race, A.Montgomery unfortunately had to leave early and was not able to sail Sundays races. Cliff Antill sailed onto win the race from L.Stevens (504).

Race 3 Catapult Results : 1st C.Antill (17), 2nd L.Stevens (504). P.Elms and A.Forrest both retired.

In the Shearwater fleet the race was dominated once again by 'Genesis' (1990) who sailed on to win the race.

Race 3 Shearwater Results : 1st 'Genesis' B & J Farnbrough (1990),2nd 'New Dawn' R.Brown & D.Clark, 3rd  'UFO' D.Williams & C.Duck (19)

The pictures below show the start of race 3, a picture of 'Take 5' and a picture of Catapult 507.

Race 4 : Due to the worsening conditions it was decided to sail just 2 laps for the last race. Only 2 Catapults sailed the last race of the series after the dismasting and retirements due to the extreme weather. There were 8 starters for the Shearwater fleet. The same exciting sailing awaited the eager sailors and once more there were capsizes.

Race 4 Shearwater Results : 1st 'Genesis' B & J Farnbrough (1990),2nd 'Caned and Unable' D. Tindale & L. Saunders (1987), 3rd 'SimSek' N.Stuart & S.Howland (1993).

Patrol Boat report : As mentioned this day was quite a busy day from the patrol boat point of view. 'Seasalter One' towed in a dismasted catapult and stood by on 3 capsizes. 'Seasalter Two' picked up a man overboard following a capsize to 1998 and returned him to his boat, it also stood by on 3 more capsizes one of which occurred to a shearwater right on the start line for the start of the catapult fleet.

All in all a very interesting weekend and one which everyone seemed to enjoy.