A Different View

So with Ant doing family stuff and Youngy of sailing a whitbread 60, Ali and myself were left helmless. We decided that it would be good for both of us to sail so of we went to Sutton Sailing Club. Having not helmed for ages and with a new crew the sight of a shiffty wind greeted us, undettered we rigged the boat and chilled out.

Race 1 :

Taking a leaf out of Mr Clays' book of starts we went for a port end flyer together with Pete and Dennis, crossed most of fleet rounded windward mark 3rd, a good battle then with Enterprise crewing legend Paul 'chimp' Hobson unfortunatly this got a little to close for comfort and we came off worse ending up in the drink, courtesey of a sutton shift. Dropped places as wind died and a boat full of water ended up in 11th.

Race 2 :

Not risking another port start as rest of fleet stacked up at that end we went for a mid line start on starboard, lucky windshifts up short 1st beat we rounded windward mark just behind Jack & Jenny Mead, managed to squeaze past them along next reach and never looked back. After what seemed like hours we crossed the finish line well ahead of chasing pack, with a tight battle for 2nd place involve about 5 boats this was won on the line by Martin Davis just ahead of Ent god Steve Venables sailing with his son.

Race 3 :

The last race was held in an increasing breeze, with either Martin or ourselves able to win it was going to be a fight to the end. The end came to soon for Ali and me as we hit a mark we allowed Martin followed by Paul to sail off into the distance, we had to settle for a 3rd place feeling pretty please with our days efforts we pack the boats away in the rain and retired to the bar for some light refreshments of the alcoholic nature.

Overall results

1st Martin & Laurence Davis
2nd James & Ali
3rd Paul Hobson & Crew


So not a bad day for the soulsailor crew, we hope to see you all in a few weeks at the inlands, Rutland Water.