‘Better late than never’ best describes the weather conditions that allowed the sailing season here at Sidmouth to commence last weekend, writes Simon White.
A ‘sailor friendly’, but gusty northwesterly breeze, provided the necessary conditions for eight dinghies to set sail on a fairly flat sea, but first the sailors had to launch in rather a testing surf due to a falling tide.
All credit to the sailors that chose to sail as the water temperature is still hovering at a very chilly nine degrees!
Barny Croft, sailing his laser, showed the rest of the fleet a clean pair of heels by winning the first race with an impressive display of tactical sailing skill.
In the junior section, David and Christina Clapp sailing a RS Feva managed a good win over a closely fought battle with Alex Hammond sailing the RS Quba.
With a shift in wind direction for the second race a general recall was required with most of the fleet getting off to a false start.
Once order had been resumed the second start saw all boats get off to a clean start.
A clever tactic adopted by Ady Moreton and Steve Beard using their spinnaker on their RS 2000 saw them get off to a flying start.
However, they were unable to maintain the momentum and slipped to third place overall having been overtaken and beaten by Simon Price and Emma McFayden in their Scorpion.
Anyone wanting to become involved in sailing is welcome to call into the club on a Saturday afternoon or, as from April 18, Wednesday evenings, when sailing takes place.
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