It’s not all serious sailboat racing at Sutton Bingham. This Sunday (18 September) the Sailing Committee organised a series of 4 fun races. There was still an element of competitiveness, but also a good deal of craziness with everyone, beginner to experienced yachter, having the chance to come away with a prize.
The day kicked off with Chris’s Terrific Tera Team Race. Sailors were paired into adult and junior crews to race in the club’s fleet of junior Tera dinghies. A Le Mans style start was adopted, with a twist, as sailors made the 50 metre dash to boats moored on the pontoons “three-legged” to add to the mayhem. Once aboard the teams sailed out to deposit one of their crew on moored rescue boats out on the lake, before racing around a small course. Crews then swapped to enable their partner to sail the course before they paired up again to sail back to shore. There was a bit of skullduggery involved with a lot of splashing, boat hooks used to try to delay dinghies getting away from the rescue boats and a some paddling towards the end. Chris Jones and Lucy Hodge emerged winners of the contest with close runners-up Tim Robertson and Dotty Hodge.The Jolly Roger was then hoisted from the flagstaff for the next event; Rob’s Swallows & Amazons Challenge. Sailors were divided into two teams denoted by a white or purple sash and sailed a normal handicap race in their own, or hired boats. The positions were then totalled with the team having the lowest overall score winning. The outcome was close with the Swallows taking the spoils, a large tray of cakes, by winning 63 points to 67.
After lunch Nigel’s Balloon Bonanza was next on the agenda. Helms were issued with a balloon on a string to be trailed from their boat’s transom. Their crews were armed with a harpoon (a garden cane with a nail attached to the end). A test of manoeuvrability and cunning, the sailors, in a restricted area of the lake, had to try to pierce their competitors balloons whilst keeping their own intact. If your balloon was popped you were out of the game until you retrieved a replacement balloon from the pontoon. As you can imagine this provided a great release for aggression and some crews were so determined they dived out of boats with their harpoons to score the all important strike! The winners were those that had the best score, the number of balloons replaced deducted from the number they popped. Only two crews achieved a positive score with Chris Jones and ace harpoonist Kelsey Green coming out on top.
Merv’s Hamper Race rounded off the day with all race finishers entered into the drawer to win a luxury hamper of goodies. Saffron Gallagher was persuaded to take to the water in a single-hander for the very first time and was coached around the course by partner Tim Robertson from another boat. Tickets for the race position of all finishers were drawn from a hat. As luck would have it, it was a delighted Saffron who was drawn the winning ticket to round off a great day.
To find out how you can get involved in sailing at Sutton Bingham Sailing Club go to www.suttonbinghamsc.net and to see more action pictures from Sunday’s just scroll down the news feed.