The weekend saw a good number of young Topper sailors descend on Horning Sailing Club for a training day, followed by an ITCA (International Topper Class Association) East Region Traveller event, with some twenty young sailors participating from across the East. After a productive, albeit rather chilly day’s training on Saturday, Sunday’s racing saw extremely light winds. Despite these challenges, four races were completed, with Ellie Thwaites (NBYC) winning the event with three Firsts. Second Overall was Jensen Jakob (NBYC) with a First, and three Seconds. Third Overall was Nathan Clark (WOBYC). First 4.2 sailor was William Mott (Snettisham Beach Sailing Club) and first home sailor was Anya Gittins.
Meanwhile, Club racing saw a downriver to Thurne take place in a barely existent breeze. Whilst the challenging conditions saw a diminished turnout, a number of cruisers (including visiting craft), keelboats and dinghies keenly made it to the start line at the Horning Waterworks. It was a slow passage downriver with the tide, taking some craft over two hours to sail to Thurne Mouth. Despite an hour and a half’s racing, The first two boats to arrive were Peter Goshawk’s Cruiser Grayling and Mike Reilly’s Cygnet which, despite an hour and a half’s racing, had just two seconds separating them over the line, Cygnet winning the leg on handicap. The return leg was won by Robert Harris’s Rushmere, with Cygnet second. In the dinghies, both outward and return legs were won by Chris Bolton sailing his Laser. Amongst the keelboats, first to Thurne was Brian Levy’s Reedling Osiris, with Allan Dornan in Yeoman Nimrod first on the return passage. The return leg necessitated an even shorter course, starting from Thurne and finishing close to St Benet’s Abbey. However, by the afternoon the clouds had broken to provide a much warmer, sunnier conditions.
Next Sunday, 21st May, sees racing return to the River.