Greyfriars Cup 4th April 2021

Published 10:36 on 6 Apr 2021

On Easter Sunday Spinnaker Club held the first dinghy races of the 2021 season. As the country emerges out of lockdown the Club has felt it safe to reintroduce racing. Social distancing may have made the event less sociable than usual but the racers were greeted by bright sun and a reasonable north easterly wind allowing Race Officers Hywel Morris and Keith Smith to set a suitably long course for a pursuit race.The first race saw 26 boats on the water including three boats in the slow handicap fleet.

We decided to run the Greyfriars Cup as pursuit races as it is easier to ensure social distancing with sequenced starts and it was also a chance to try out the separate start times for the slower boats. Both experiments seemed to be successful, but as always we would love to hear your feedback at rcs@spinnakeclub.co.uk.

The first race was won by Felix Newall-Smith sailing single handed in his beautiful purple National 12, proving once again what a great boat it is for the lake. Jo Burns was second in Aero 2673 and Ian Matthews was 3rd in Solo 4356. Finlay Leigh-Anderson won the slow fleet.

At one stage In the second race the developing sea breeze threatened to cancel out the northeasterly wind but, although there were some very odd local conditions, at all stages there was enough breeze to continue racing. In this race Felix and Tom Clay soon pulled out a big lead which they sustained for the whole race, with Stuart Hudson on Laser 204644 in third. Once again Finlay won the slow class. The full results will be available on line soon.

This meant that Felix won the Greyfriars Cup and Finlay received a rash vest for winning the Slow Handicap class. Congratulations to both of them and thank you to Bob Hockham for providing safety cover.

The Greyfriars cup is one of the Club's oldest trophies and was presented by the Greyfriars Community Centre many years ago.

Wednesday evening racing starts on Wednesday 7th April. This will be in the form of Wednesday A series handicap Race 1, start at 17.45, followed by Holman Bowl Pursuit Race 1 with faster fleet starts from 18.54hrs and slower fleet from 1915 . Wednesday A series consists of 10 races with 6 to count and Holman Bowl Pursuit series is made up of 9 races with 5 to count. You can check at Race Hut for your personal start time for the Pursuit race and the Racing/ Pursuit race tab on this website.

Sunday racing continues from 11th April in a slightly different format with a Pursuit race, first start 12.38hrs finish 13.45hrs, followed by a Handicap Sprint Series of Race 1, 2 & 3 comprising 3 short 20 minute races back to back. Sprint series first start at 14.15hrs.

Here's hoping for a great season of racing in 2021.

Last updated 09:41 on 20 December 2023