It was a brilliant day on the water for Horning Sailing Club’s downriver race to Thurne on Sunday. Welcoming a number of visiting sailors, the Club saw a good turnout. Despite several sailors taking part in nearby Acle Regatta over the weekend, the keelboats turned out in force to become the largest fleet of the day.
With a decent breeze and warm sunshine, rather unusually the wind direction lent itself to starting from the Clubhouse, with the wind behind the competitors though Horning village. It almost felt like the start of the Three Rivers Race (two weeks early!) as the mixed fleet of cruisers, keelboats and dinghies made their way through the winding river and out of the trees into open water. It was particularly encouraging to see a good turnout from Horning’s youth sailors, racing in both keelboats and dinghies.
Racing itself was relatively uneventful, save for a small coming together on the way down involving three boats and a tree, and another boat getting entangled in a tree within yards of the finish line and forcing its retirement on the return!
The Cruisers saw Peter Goshawk (Grayling) win in both directions, with George Brewis (Amantani) second. Amongst the keelboats, first both to Thurne and the return on handicap was Marty Thompson sailing Yare & Bure Dingy Skipper, with Peter Coles in Rebel Chieftain second in both directions. Third in both directions was Toby Pearce sailing Yare & Bure Kallima. In the dinghies, Hamish Harmer sailing his Splash was first in both directions, followed by Jasmine Herring & James Street sailing a Laser 2 in second place.
