What a fantastic regatta weekend!

Click here for Junior Champs photos
Click here for Regatta photos
Click here for Club Champs Photos

Who needs to travel and holiday away?
SHSC provided fantastic weather-hours of sunshine and no rain, varied competitive sailing F2-6, a fleet of 70 competitors on Saturday with 30 prepared to challenge the winds of Sunday. A great social occasion with a superb spectator element.
Hospitality started with the gentle introduction of a relaxing BBQ or ventures to partake in the gourmet curry house on Friday evening. Campers vans, caravans and tents established camp-the geese retreated to the water.
Brilliant sunshine (and the odd plane overhead) awoke the dozing campers by 7 and preparations were under way. Great team spirit inspired by our leader Gray with ‘gazebo’ in place for the Hog Roast, the dance floor cleared and the casks of Jon Thompson home brew settling. The Foskett 3 set to organising 3 junior/ youth races and a further 2 regatta cup races.
35 younger sailors attentively listened to their briefing-for many the first true race ever. Some great starts guys!! Ben Pole led the way to the W mark in his laser radial challenged by the RS200 teams of Corey helming for Pete Gray and Rose for big brother Joe. Both crews gave firm guidance! Pete successfully retrieving Corey when he flew out over the transom. The 6 green group oppies were ably coached around by Holly and Buzz and all managed the lap cheering as they crossed the finish line. It was fantastic sitting on the committee boat as  groups of topper & optimist sailors sailed through laughing and chatting away jostling competitively with the friends .
Two races and time to relax. The Regatta event, new to SHSC in 2009 is designed to be fun but competitive, open to all ages and abilities:  2 handicap races. A sensible start line was rapidly lengthened as 38 boats launched towards the committee boat. With 8 RS200’s they proved the biggest fleet, closely followed by 6 comets and 6 fireballs.  With wind down the lake the course was set to beat up to 3 and then return with a set of 2/3 sail reaches back down to 8. Yes Andy K got his screaming reach! Darren sacked Colin and Chris proved an excellent crew with 9th in the first race. Madog and Pete led the way with a storming sail. No rest on the committee boat with a continuous stream of dinghies sailing by.
Quick turn around and the final junior/youth race.  By then money had been spend on the committee boat upgrade with streamers, parasol, balloons and weather vanes. No expense spared!
Competitive drive evident . Some great starting techniques, ducks and dives and craft appeared from all directions. A simple figure of 8 course to complete their day. The toppers has topped the scoreboard overall but with trophies to win in all ability groups there was lots to aim for.

 

Junior /Youth Championships Results:
1st           Holly McKechnie
2nd          Nick Robinson
3rd           Colleen Winter
First Green group: Chloe Felton
First Yellow group: Fergus Winter
First Orange Group; Max Greenhalgh
First Red Group: Holly McKechnie
First Purple group; Jack & Dan Morris
First Youth: Ben Pole

But as with tradition gifts for all. Water bombs were still being filled on Sunday afternoon.
So to regatta race 2. Gray/ Mark avoided the hole in the wind this time and successfully challenged Madog/Pete taking 1st in this race. Again the RS200’s provided hot competition with Lol/Matt holding 5th.Colleen/Joe and Rose had by now sailed all 5 races!

Regatta results
1st Madog/Pete FB
2nd Andy Kennington-Phantom
3rd Gary/Mark FB
1st Lady/1st junior/1st topper-Colleen Winter
1st youth Joe Smith
1st over 60/1st junior crew/oldest boat Alan Bennett& Keeley Kenmuir-Hogg Mirror.
Perseverance trophy Steve Cussens.

 

Time to relax!! Surely not.
Hog roast under way. And yes Sam it did look like a real ex-pig. The evening was under way....and didn’t finish for some until the early hours. 150 pints of JT were speedily drunk and the bar never quiet. 150 tickets sold! New and old faces, young and not so young. Everyone had a great time. Lots of thanks go to the folk who organised the day especially to Lol for his culinary contributions yet again.
Stuart Childerley, Olympic sailor,  accompanied by his father Mike and son were able to join us. Stuart remains an Honorary members of SHSC, fond memories were exchanged as Stuart ably told us of his sailing experiences and officially commemorated the opening of our refurbed clubhouse.
Once we had indulged in beer and hog; next came the chocolate dipped strawberries to die for. Many fingers were witnessed scraping up the runny chocolate remains...and all the big kids enjoyed cones of ice cream of course.
Meanwhile Broken Toys  set the music tone for the evening. As the night moved on ,dancing feet loosened up...some great new moves! Last encore about 0030. Hardcore sailors were unable to leave the new bar area. Richard/Phil and Mark squeezed cosily on to the small sofa and kept us all entertained.
Peace reigned over SHSC........but there were 60 sleeping residents. Again those planes, little people who always wake at 0530 and of course the breakfast chefs rose early. Industrious tidying; you would never know of the night before, apart from the few sore heads around.

The question: To sail or not to sail?
Why did it have to be so windy? Wind guru had warned us all over the low moving down the country with predictions of 70mph gusts. Hence a mere 15 gusting 30 proved an easy challenge. Pursuit plans were ditched in favour of 3 handicap races.
Breeze down the lake meant that Kris Hogg and Denis Mansfield could run 3 excellent races from the start box. Tired legs and sore heads ignored, competitors sparked into action with a prompt 11 00 start. Tom Foskett/Simon Forbes led the way chased and eventually passed by Grahame/Mark after a couple of precarious capsizes. Incredible spectator sport, crowds gathered at the jibe marks cameras in hand.4.7 sails proved their worth with 1st Gray/Mark; 2nd Paul Williamson and 3rd Tom/Simon. By then we had a holed 405, snapped main halyard, several masts in the mud and lots of bruises. The superb safety team were kept extremely busy. Never to be deterred by a little wind our 3 optimist sailors Holly, Cora and Olivia raced the whole day.
On shore at last! Rest.....no just a 20 minute break declared our task master OOD. Again Gray and Mark beat us all challenged strongly by Pete/Richard in the scorpion this time.  Those jibe marks again took their prisoners, often a few at a time. You could just feel the wishful thinking that you would survive to the next leg.
The final race was underway by 1430. Why  does the wind always build as the boats launch. Definitely the windiest race of the day. A few retirements and tired sailors. Many had never sailed so fast or scarily. Crews were launched into sails from above; some with enough momentum to bend the boom, others sensibly risking the body shaped hole in the mainsail. Helms flew out over  transoms and safety teams carefully watched as most boats lay down for a while. Fireballs held 1st again with Tom Williamson/Simon kelsall followed by Tom Foskett/Simon Forbes and Ian Kelly/Buzz. Again 4.7’s proved strong with Eleanor holding 5th.
All those aching limbs and scary moments forgotten the prize giving was underway by 1600hrs.
This was a great occasion as we officially received a wonderful trophy donated by the family of Pete and Junette Chapman. Pete’s daughter reminisced of the many hours Pete would spend reflecting on his sailing years. We will all remember them very fondly. The trophy is awarded to the first slow handicap boat in the Club Championships; this year Paul Williamson who finished 5th overall.

Final results.
1st Grahame/Mark FB
2nd Tom Foskett/Simon Forbes FB
3rd Ian Kelly/ Buzz FB
Ist  Slow Handicap/1st laser Paul Williamson 5th overall
1st Under 21 James Foskett 7th overall Laser Rad.
1st Lady helm Eleanor Sleep 9th overall
1st Lady Crew Hannah Sandstrom
1st over 60 Terry Gooch
1st Junior/1st optimist Holly McKechnie 19th overall

A brilliant weekend!!! Do join us all next year.