Thorpe Bay Yacht Club

Tel: 01702 587 563

The competition amongst the Sandhopper fleet  has grown to new heights with Steve Hopper (Sand Star 159) & Paul Spratt (Apollo 154) with a challenging climb up Mount Kilimanjaro.  The pair have set off from Heathrow today for their pre season training and trip of a lifetime,  Steve has taken a small laptop with him and signal permitting will be sending reports to keep us up to date with their events.

Lets wish them plain sailing & have fun.

11/3/10 16:00hrs Steve has called me several times from his mobile to give me their progress. He said that day one was tough as they walked for 5hrs and they were both exhausted on arriving at camp. Day two they walked for 7hrs and the climb was much steeper and arrived at camp at 4pm completely Kna***ed. Day three was all I could understand as Steve’s call kept failing.

I would have to say by the tone of his voice that things were tough and by the speed of the conversation that they were exhausted and finding it hard to breathe.

I hope they are well and will report any further contact.  Martyn

Made contact again, they are currently at about 15000ft,tired and suffering from the altitude. Paul is suffering most from lack of oxygen, I am not sure if Steve was just suffering from the lack of Blue Sapphire as he had not consumed any  for the last three days.

The climb tomorrow will be a tough one as the slope is getting steeper. Their attempt for the summit will be late on Monday night… Good Luck..   Martyn

Steve phoned me 7am this morning and I could immediately notice a change in his mood, they had both climbed for a couple of hours and were standing on a 1000ft cliff top (must be scary as they are already at 15000ft) Steve said the World looked great and he and Spraty were acclimatising well with the altitude. Their attempt for summit now starts this Sunday at 9pm our time.

Just a reminder that the annual Sandhopper Christmas drinks party will take place on Wednesday 9th December in the Club House, all Sandhopper sailors including wives etc are welcome.

Published on behalf of the Sandhoppers Group

many thanks to all those who helped the lift out on saturday in record time, special mention to spratty, gordon and aimmee for getting the boats racked and packed, to Roger and Jason for their speed and skill, Ann, Jane and meik for the teas, Linda and Pat for the safe crossing, Rupert and Co. for dropping masts, also thanks to Toby and the crew erecting the gantry, fantastic team work and a fun day. same again in march !!
thanks barry

18 sandhoppers raced in glorious sunshine on sunday in the final race of the year, light winds made for a tricky race, Satisfaction was the winner on the day followed by squiffy then sandstar, thanks to all those who helped on the day.

Congratulations to Peter Thompson and Steve Hopper (Sand star) who took the crown of Sandhopper National Champions for the second consecutive year.
29 boats entered this years event in champagne sailing conditions at TBYC.
Sandstar stormed the board with a 2-1-2 to secure top spot. second place was closely contested with Apollo (2nd Eyre & Burrell) just beating Squiffy ( Binnendyke & Saunders) into third.
many thanks to Hyde sails who Sponsored the prizes of new sails, the support crews headed by Tony Clarke, the race officer team of Geoff Appleton, Lisa Farrall for organising a great social event and Jo & the crew from the catering team at TBYC who helped make the whole weekend event a tremendous success.
full results and write up please go to www.sandhopper.org.uk

Thanks to all who participated in making the event such an enjoyable experience.
Barry

Congratulations to Barry for organising a very successful championship.
(And for winning a nice new spinnaker courtesy of Hydes!)

The notice of race, sailing instructions and entry form are available to download from the sandhopper web site

http://www.sandhopper.org.uk/

Don’t forget the Sandhopper Nationals on 5th/6th September!

Congratulations to Peter Thompson and Steve Hopper in Sand star who swept the board at the open with 3 firsts, second place was taken by Paul and Bruce Spratt in Apollo and in third was Phil Crawford and Margaret Kennedy in Satisafaction,

19 boats took part in near perfect conditions with close battles being fought throughout the fleet, many thanks to Gordon Sanders and his team who set perfect courses and did a stirling job.

Thanks to Primo Insurance for Sponsoring the regatta and pulling a sandhopper grandfather (Ken) in the draw giving him a new ipod touch.

Congratulations to Martin and Nick Binnendijk for winning the Yantlet race yesterday out of 50 entrants.

15 Sandhoppers were in the top 20 places and with 17 sandhoppers starting they were the largest class on the water, top marks to Peter and John in Talitrus along with John and Janet in sandpiper who showed the rest of the fleet their skills with tide flow across the thames.

As for chris and toby in Nemises (DBL) along with Apollo and Sand star… boys need to take note of tide times and race course instructions!!!

A fantastic race was had by all in glorious conditions.