FGSC Solo Open 2008

Race Report

King George Sailor wins the FGSC Solo Open Meeting.

Fishers Green Sailing Club, near Waltham Abbey, held its annual National Solo Class dinghy Open Meeting on Sunday 2nd November. Twenty nine boats entered the competition, including seven visitors, one of which came from as far as Spalding in Lincs.

Three races were planned for the day, with the two best positions from three to count.

The day started dull and with little in the way of wind which caused the race officer, Dave Beer to declare a short postponement before the start of the first race which had been scheduled for 11 am.

A wind speed of force 2-3, varying from a direction of N-NE soon came for the start of the first race where a number of sailors were so keen to start that they were over the line before the gun went, and this caused a general recall. The leading group then changed places a number of times before the race was shortened to two laps. It was interesting to see that the tail enders were almost lapped by the leading boats in a two lap race! FGSC helm Paul Rayson was the winner of this race with visitor, Tony Cooper from King George Sailing Club, finishing second, and Godfrey Clark from FGSC in third place.

Race two was held directly after the first race, but there was now a slightly different course, but unfortunately the wind was now decreasing and was varying in direction from N-NE to WNW-SW and at one point from the East ! This became a very tactical race for the leading five or so boats, with the lead changing hands on several occasions. Towards the end of the race the wind almost died completely, which caused a few problems for the tail enders to finish the race Tony Cooper was the winner of this race, with local helm James Mead finishing in second place and Paul Rayson dropping back to third.

A third race had been planed for after lunch, but as the wind had dropped completely the race officer decided to abandon the afternoons racing, so the points were added up to decide the winner without any discard..

Club Commodore, Brian Conroy handed out the trophies and prizes to the winners.

1st Tony Cooper from King George SC in Chingford

2nd Paul Rayson from FGSC

3rd Godfrey Clark from FGSC

Report by: John Strange. FGSC Solo Fleet Captain.