May 14 2008
SandHopper Long Distance Race
The Sandhoppers held their first long distance race of the year (5 races left to go) on Sunday, 8 boats left the moorings at 7.30 with the start at 8.00, the weather was stunning with a clear blue sky and a 13mph north easterly breeze, Sand Storm (current national champions Chris Clarke and Nick Barnes ) were first around the mid Shoebury buoy clocking 8 knots on the gps, with sand star (Hopper/Thompson) close on their heels, Squiffy, Sand Spirit, Spider, On The Hop, Windrush and Pearl all fought for the other positions, the black tail spit was missed by Sandstorm and the national champions had to come back on themselves to round the mark, the rest of the fleet didn’t laugh to much, three and a half hours of tactical windward and tidal sailing saw Sand Star finish first, at the Maplin Edge, Squiffy second , On The Hop third, Sand Storm (current champions) fourth, Pearl fifth, Sandspirit sixth, Spider seventh and Windrush eighth (Windrush went to the rescue of a fishing boat in distress hence the position). The second part of the race was a long spinnaker leg home Sand Star again took first place, Sand Storm second , On The Hop third, Squiffy fourth, Pearl fifth, Sand Spirit sixth, Windrush seventh and Spider eighth .
However, due to the competitiveness of the fleet we had the video running during the day from our fabulous support crew on Sea Safe 3, Nik Bennindyke, Dan Henderson and Bruce Spratt, (thanks boys for giving up your day ensuring our safety) ,
After collating all the days information and video , unfortunately our national champions forgot to sign on and off for the first leg and were ocs at the start of the second race, never mind messers Barns and Clarke better a lesson learnt now rather than at the national in a few weeks time, so with them out of the chocolates the rest of us moved up a place.
The day was a great success and I hope we will have even more entrants for the next one, if anyone would like to see the video of the day we will be showing it in the club on Thursday evening, watching Chris and Nick over the line by a country mile is very funny to see.
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