SAAM – FIRST RACE DAY OF THE AUTUMN SERIES

Wednesday 7th September offered blue sky and sea but unfortunately no wind when the competitors arrived for the first race day of the Sailing Association Mar Menor’s Autumn 2014 Series. But by 11.30am a light breeze had materialised and the race started with 9 boats.

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The five dinghies were away first in a 7 knot breeze but, 5 minutes later when the 4 bigger boats started; it had dropped to 4 knots which gave the dinghies a distinct advantage. All finished their four laps in less than 2 hours against the over 2 hours for all the bigger boats.

As these are handicap races the result on corrected time was 1st the Faversham 14 of David / Louise Belcher, a great win for a relatively inexperienced couple. 2nd the Sailfish 18 of Bob Miles / Carol Sibson and 3rd the Laser 2000 of Brian Murray / Pete Caldwell.

The wind had increased to 10-12 knots when the second race started at 3pm for the 5 dinghies and 3 larger boats, enabling them all to complete four laps in less than 75 minutes.

The two Sailfish 18’s crossed the line just 2 seconds apart which had the makings of an exciting tussle, within the race, between these identical boats. Unfortunately Sirocco, sailed by Rob Hudson suffered a broken rudder after about 10 minutes and was forced to retire.

The results on corrected time were 1st the Laser 2000 of Tug Wilson / Vernon O’Byrne; 2nd the Gamba of John Down / Laurence Carter and 3rd the Laser 2000 of Brian Murray / Pat Fleck.

The next race day is September 21st and the monthly SAMM meeting is on October 8th both at the Spanish sports academy CTD Infanta Christina on the beach front at Los Najeros, near Los Alcazares. New competitors and members welcome.

Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/44820/

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