It seems to have slipped eveyones attention that Allen Burrell has yet again won the UK Finn Masters.

It only came to light in a totally unrelated conversation in the dinghy park at the weekend, when he quietly mentioned he had collected another national tittle in his travels.

Congratulations Allen, and in future, please dont keep this sort of information to yourself.

Gordon Sanders.

Congratulations to Kyle Stoneham for winning a windy Sprint Inlands at Grafham this weekend.  Martyn Ellis also had a good result with a 7th, and I was, er, 12th.  I did however manage 3rd in the TT series, of which the Inlands was the final and best attended event. 

Kyle’s achievement is all the greater for the fact that his boat is by no means new and neither is his sail.  It all goes to show it’s not the equipment, it’s the person on the tiller.  It’s a fact that Kyle regularly goes out after work and PRACTICES – upwind, downwind, tacks, gybes, 360 degree turns, and starting.  He also thinks about what he does and why he does it.

All in all, it’s been a good year for the Thorpe Bay Spint 15 fleet, with two titles and a growing reputation on the circuit.

The final fling was held in testing conditions with 17 boats battling a 30 mph southerly wind for the top spot,

race officer Andrew hannah was having no nonscense with the starts and insisted on 3 of them, major culprits over on the first 2 were Alan Burrell with Paul spratt on Apollo ensuring they pushed a few over with them.

With the race underway Apollo lead with Sandstar and Satisfaction close on their heels, the entire fleet had some amazing surfing on the downwind leg with positions swapping constantly, 3 laps tested many crews with a few exhausted at the end.

Apollo took line honours with sandstar in 2nd and satisfaction 3rd, maiden voyage blue jacket with the Barnes duo put in a good performance and were awarded the ‘Golden Anchor’ for showing the rest of the fleet how to launch your kite clew first, well done Nic!! Also on their maiden voyage were messers Gibson and Wolfe who pressganged local national champion dan Henderson and put in a fantastic first race even if they did pull half their fittings out of the boat.

many of us sailed 3 up and thoroughly enjoyed the event, Steve Hopper and Peter Thompson won the cash sweepstake, whilst messers Burrell and Spratt took the sunday trophy and the much sort after final fling trophy kindly donated by Hannah and Tony Padbury.

many thanks to Andrew hannah the race officer, Tony Clarke and Peter Evens for safety support and to rupert snow for finishing behind me again for the 26th time this year.

lets hope winter passes quickly so we can continue the fun.

Hello all,

i have just been notified of a brand new laser available ready to give RFT a bit of competition in the winter series!!

sail number 193193 GXD , trolley, cover….

£3600   07966648107

Just a reminder that the dinghy AGM is this wednesday evening at TBYC, the start is at 8pm or 8.15 if you sail a sprint 15.

see you there.

Due to unforseen circumstances we have had to change the date of the End of season prizegiving, the new date is 8pm Saturday November the 1st, Please see club web site and notice boards next week  for a list of of prize winners.

Dont forget it could be you.

Regards Spratty

A very well done to Howard Hawkes who in his sprint (yes I know) won the race on sunday, with no wind to start just rain and 44mph half way round it was a very exciting race, once again the sandhopper fleet out numbered all the other classes with Zues sailed by Rupert Snow taking first amongst the sandhoppers, this is ruperts first win of the season and im sure his improved performance was down to the training session we held in the morning thanks to Peter Thompson.  Alex Farrell was the star of the day helming Apollo surviving multiple knockdowns and still managing second place. Chris Clark put in a very disappointing show in sandstorm with third position, but it is thanks to his tuition with Alex over the last two years that the pupil has started to beat his master, i’m sure as he gets older he will also be able to out drink you chris?

Winter Series 2008 and Icicle Series 2009 documents (in Adobe PDF format) below.

Winter Series 2008 and Icicle Series 2009 Entry Form

Winter Series 2008 and Icicle Series 2009 Sailing Instructions

Did anyone else wonder if the winter series had started earlier than expected?

RFT

The Dinghy AGM is to be held on Wednesday 15th October at 8.00 pm.

If you’re a cat or dinghy sailor, please attend if at all possible – it’s the opportunity to have your say.