20/05/2023
Hornsea open meeting Hornsea Sailing Club

P&B Northern Paddle Series

by Alan Gillard

Hornsea Sailing Club played host to the third event in the Streaker Northern Paddle Series sponsored by P&B. Unfortunately, only six visitors turned up, and with no Hornsea Streaker sailors of their own the fleet was small. But even so the weather did turn up, greeted by a cloudless sky and a force 2 to 3, which increased to a force 3 to 4 in the afternoon.

Giles Therkelson-Smith (Beaver) led away race 1. Confusion though took hold of the small fleet as we all sailed the wrong course. It would have helped to have written the course down! Even so we all blamed Giles for the mistake. Fortunately, the Race Officer brought the fleet back under starters order and a second attempt to run race 1.

This time we managed to sail the correct course, led this time by Richard Brameld (Beaver) at the 1st mark, who had played a nice shift on the left side of the 1st beat, closely followed by Giles. Richard and Giles had their own private battle out in front, whilst behind Peter Kitchen (Tees & Hartlepool) held third from Alan Gillard (Sheffield Viking) and Nigel Robinson (Beaver).

Giles eventually got the better of Richard to take the gun. Richard though was under pressure from Nigel who had moved steadily through into third place. That left shift Richard had played on the 1st beat nearly let him down, cries of anguish as he nearly lost second place.

After lunch two races were sailed back-to-back on a smaller course for those that had run out of space to write the course down or those with short term memory loss.

The wind over lunch had increased to a force 3 to 4. Richard again hooked into the left shift on the first beat to the windward mark, rounding just ahead of Alan. Giles and Nigel had both been OCS at the start, both returning for a restart.

Alan took the lead on the second beat playing Richards left shift to his advantage. Alan then sailed off into the distance to win comfortably. Richard could not hold onto second this time as Nigel recovered from his OCS, relegating Richard to third.

It was all still to play for going into race 3. Anyone from four Streakers could win overall such was the closeness of the races.

Giles, Alan, and Richard all arrived at the 1st mark together with Nigel and Peter close behind. Giles won the race on the next two reaching legs as he gained the advantage at the gybe mark and extended his lead on the next close reach. Alan held off Nigel and Richard to the finish.

Cakes and savouries rounded off a wonderful day sailing at the prize-giving. Our thanks to Hornsea Sailing Club for their continued support and allowing the Streaker fleet to enjoy the delights of the Hornsea Mere.

The next P&B sponsored Northern Paddle Meeting is at East Lothian YC on the 3rd/4th June, then it's Hykeham SC on the 10th June.

Overall Results:

Sailed: 3, Discards: 1, To count: 2, Entries: 6, Scoring system: Appendix A