36 Vane Sailing 7 January 2012

A brilliant start to the season with a ‘friendly’ day’s sailing. The weather was on our side, although the club house was not! It is amazing the difference it makes to the direction of the wind as you go past.

Six skippers turned out with two mates. What made the day more enjoyable were the extra mates that came and gave a hand. A big thank you to Arnie Peace, Brian Smith and John Storey. Hope you will join in again. You don’t have to be told what a big difference it makes to have someone on the other bank when you are racing a vane boat.

While thank yous are being given out, an enormous thank you to Pete and Julie for running the racing. Particularly for their patience as everyone was kept waiting in the cold whilst a damaged vane was mended.

Close racing and some canny vane settings were the order of the day ensuring everyone scored points. Peter Fothergill showed us the way and won with 18 points. Anthony Warren came second with 15 points, winning all his up wind legs but none of the down winds! He was closely followed by Jacque Cook and her mate Eric Meighan with 14 points making good use of a spinnaker. However, John Smith with out a spinnaker equalled the number of downwind wins with Jacque and came fourth with an overall 11 points. Mervyn Cook with Andy Fernie as mate came fifth with 10 points and Chris Durant sixth with 7 points.

First race of the year to count is Saturday 4^th February.

Jacque Cook