Sunday the 7^th January saw 17 skippers gather at Blackwater Sailing Club practice lake in Heybridge for one of the first open meetings of 2018.

Skippers travelled from as far away as Cambridge and Eastbourne to enjoy a day’s sailing under leaden skies and in the brisk breeze that made it feel like a below zero day.

The 10 local skippers welcomed the seven visitors and together they sailed the windward leeward course set by Graham and George Beacroft. Due to a constant wind the course remained throughout the day.

The host club provided the all officials enabling the event to be raced with one fleet. Lunchtime was embellished with homemade mince pies (Thanks Cath) and mulled wine to warm everyone.

After the 15 races the results showed that Colin Goodwin won the day for the fourth year in a row, with Graham Bantock and Trevor Binks level on 38 points, count back place Trevor 2^nd .

The whole event was sailed with good humour and behaviour. Three boats had to retire with damage mainly due to the strong winds that also caused one competitor to change down to third suit for the latter part of the day.

Results:

Report and Results courtesy of John Richmond.

Chelmsford RYC will be hosting the annual Oliver Lee Trophy on Sunday 7th January 2018 at their Blackwater Sailing Club venue. This event, which is open to all MYA members with a certified IOM boat, normally has Mince Pies and Hot Mulled Wine so not to be missed!

To enter please use the MYA Online Entry Form if possible or email George Beacroft (george.beacroft@tcma.co.uk)

There will be a skippers briefing at 09:45am with the first race shortly after, about 10:00am. The last race will be decided on the day dependent on the prevailing conditions.

MYA Standard Sailing Instructions (SSI’s) will be used and skippers are reminded that they will be required to undertake to sail in accordance with the RYA Racing Charter.

Remember this is the first open event in the Eastern District, but other event dates for 2018 can be found in the ‘Events Diary’

On Sunday 3rd December 2017 skippers arrived at Coalhouse Fort RYC for the annual Icicle Trophy on what initially was a cold day with very little if any wind. It was good to see a few new faces at an IOM Open event including, Gavin Print; Bryan Southgate and Dennis Graham. Unfortunately Dennis had a transmitter issue causing him to have to withdraw after Race 6. There were initially 19 entrants but due to illness this was reduced to 17 skippers from 6 clubs on the day.

As the day went on the wind did increase slightly and was primarily from the North North West veering to North West and so Geoff Appleton, Race Officer for the day, set a windward/leeward course at the north end of the lake.

Unusually, Colin Goodman did not have a normal day, taking 8 wins and was closely challenged at times by Trevor Binks, Vernon Appleton and Vinnie Zammit with 2 wins; and Graham Bartholomew and Gavin Print with 1 win.

However, at the end of the day with his greater consistency as normal Colin was the overall winner with 18 points, followed by Trevor Binks with 40 points and Vernon Appleton third with 50 points.

Results:

Despite initially little or no wind, the day ended with a good breeze and our thanks to all participants for their good behaviour with the only ‘protest’ being for redress.

Our thanks to Malcolm Schaffer, Glenn Meekcoms and Peter Herbert for their valuable help throughout the day.