Clevedon Sailing Club’s annual channel race was held in glorious sunshine on the bank holiday Sunday with good sailing wind. The long-distance race is from Clevedon to Denny Island and back. The aim for competitors is to time their departure to achieve the rounding of the rocky outcrop near Avonmouth to coincide with high water. This way they get the benefit of the flood tide on the way there and the ebbing tide sailing home.
The fleet of nine dinghies started according to their skippers’ best estimate of how long the passage would take. All the boats reached Denny before the tide had turned so that earlier starters were most compromised by sailing against the current. Amongst the group who delayed their departure for longest and reached the turning point as the tide was close to turning were Martin Gibson (Laser) and Robin Goff (D-Zero) who took first and second places respectively. One early starter was the 420 of Baker/Turner, who sailed at a splendid pace to take third place despite the disadvantage of having the current against them for a quarter of the race.
Results
1st - Martin Gibson (Laser)
2nd - Robin Goff (D-Zero)
3rd - Trevor Baker & Stuart Turner (420)
Robin and Martin rounding Deny Island
1st - Martin Gibson
2nd - Robin Goff
Robin in D-Zero
Trevor and Stuart heading off
3rd - Trevor Baker and Stuart Turner