The
Heys Memorial Hurricane Open Meeting
by
Ian Cuthbertson
The
biggest sailing event the Island Yacht Club had seen finally arrived and
rather fittingly in the 10th anniversary year of the “new”
club. The Hurricane
Association had agreed to let us “novices” hold an open meeting on
Canvey Island.
The
weekend started, as all weekends always do, with a drink in the club.
Most of the competitors and their entourages had arrived on Friday
afternoon and were enjoying a meal and a drink.
Saturday
morning arrived and there was a nice wind, northerly 10-12knots.
Great sailing conditions. While
we waited for the tide to come in we sat and ate a hearty breakfast
provided by Carol and her team in the kitchen.
Maxine Mawditt and Laura Wood were registering people making sure
they filled out their forms particularly the one for ordering your dinner,
didn’t want anyone going hungry after all that sailing.
There
was a hive of activity with people preparing their boats.
The tide came in and off we went in the committee boat to take our
places.
Ian
Cuthbertson (Cuffy) Race Officer, Gerry Norton, who was in charge of the
cannon and the only pair of ear muffs we had, John Linton and Lorraine
Cuthbertson. Cuffy at the
helm, thought he’d see if he went fast enough he could actually make the
boat take off and fly!! The
three rescue boats (which we hoped we wouldn’t need for rescuing) laid
the course. Although Andy
Prince (Princy) with the assistance of Josh Turner and our official
photographer Tanya Sanderson, hadn’t quite managed to lay their marks in
time for the first lap so they became the “Human Racing Marks”, what
great improvisation. Cuffy
had inadvertently forgotten to radio and tell Princy he was starting the
first race, although I can vouch that the cannon was rather on the loud
side. On the other two ribs
we had Sam King and Chris Irvine and our neighbours from Chapman Sands
Yacht Club.
The
first race underway and Team TB were ahead on the first lap closely
followed by Marinepool and Purple Helmet.
Hot
Gossip in fourth place played tactics and took the other tack once through
the gate to the three leaders. On
the final lap, the shrieks of Sue Turner could be heard as they nearly
collided going round the mark, narrow escape but all was fine.
Purple Helmet won the first the race.
EmmaLou
was a little bit too friendly with the finishing buoy kissing it a little
too hard and consequently deflated it.
On
the second race things were going so fast, we made the top of the fleet
sail five laps. Purple Helmet
had a good lead on the first lap. For
Yours Only decided to go for a dip just as they rounded the mark but this
didn’t hold them back for long, they got the boat back up and continued
on, which was a shame as they hadn’t seen the blue flag and didn’t
need to do another lap! EmmaLou
had an exciting moment but managed to keep upright.
Mark II was doing well on the tail of Hot Gossip.
The wind was coming in gusts, which added to the excitement.
Once again Purple Helmet took first place.
Would they get a hat trick?
Race
three and we made the course longer as the laps were much too quick,
that’ll show em! The wind
then dropped off somewhat so our plan to make the laps slower
had
worked, how clever of us!
Cold
Fusion lost a man overboard but ‘No Life Jacket Required’ came to
their rescue
and
helped her back on board.
EmmaLou
with Brian Keenleyside (Briany) and Adrian Pharro on board made a great
50p turn around the bouy, you can never say that Briany is “two bob”.
Yes they made it a hat trick, Purple Helmet first over the line
again with Hot Gossip taking second place.
Nothing
else for it now, but, back to the clubhouse for the frivolity.
A few drinks followed by a meal and then more drinks.
We were entertained by Sharon Kelly.
Some of the more sensible ones, the honest ones, too drunk, took
ourselves off home to bed. Others
didn’t want the day to end and kept the party going in the compound,
which was also acting as home to many for the weekend, and never quite
made it to bed.
A
lovely Sunday morning, sun shining but not a lot of wind.
The course was laid, the starting sequence began but there were
obviously a few people nursing a hangover that were a bit late for the
start. Purple Helmet’s
excuse was that they “shouldn’t have had that last cup of tea”, but
we think it was more likely that it was that last pint at the bar the
night before. Everyone got
round the first lap but the wind died on the second and it was painful to
watch the boats drifting along.
Hot
Gossip leading the race had a moment of madness and let Four Heads in a
Fish Tank past with a 100yards to go because Kevvy
thought he had to go round again.
Does he need an eye test to see the blue flag?
The first eight boats finished quite close together but then it
took another hour for the rest of the fleet to finish.
We decided to cancel the last race in view of the fact there was NO
WIND!
Back
to the club for yet another drink and a BBQ in the compound cooked by Mark
and Ruth Peters (Anytime’s Amanda’s Mum and Dad).
The
prize giving was made with the overall winners being Purple Helmet (even
though they had that last pint, oh no it was a cup of tea!).
Three boats had equal points for second place with their best race
deciding the order.
Prizes
were presented by Lawson and Ronda Heys, the sponsors of the weekend’s
event. Many thanks to the
Heys for their generosity which helped enormously to make the event stand
out from other open meetings.
Well
we did it, the weekend was a resounding success and mainly down to the
leadership of Sue and Kevin Turner. Well
done to everyone involved and here’s to next year!!
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