10/06/2008 by Col.

With Snettisham Beach hosting the Single Handed National Championships later in the year, the Dart Open gave an ideal opportunity for some of the fleet to practice their racing skills for this individual event. The forecast for light showers and a 12 knot wind on Saturday almost came true but the rain was persistent which tested both competitors and race officers William Dickson and Roger Bell over three races. Guy Playford won the first and third race with Robert Fletcher and Ian Clayton taking the second race resulting in a single hander leading at the end of day one.
Sunday was dry and although the wind was forecast to drop, it continued to blow with as some saw it, unpredictable shifts. Guy’s route up the first beat meant that a shift gave him a considerable lead which he held to take the first race making him well placed to win the event. Robert and Ian came back to win the final two races which left both boats on equal points, equal firsts and after a quick check on the rules the event was won by the result of the last race, hence Robert and Ian regained the trophy.
Loosing the event by Appendix A Rule 8.2 was disappointing for Guy but he looks to be a strong contender for the Single Handed Nationals in September.

Posted in E-MAIL ALL, Events, Results, Last weekend | Print | 1 Comment »

09/03/2008 by Col.

Yes it’s March but this weekend was the first Dart GP at Rutland and as Jim and I live less than 15 minutes away we had no excuses but to go and represent Snet Beach. Robert and Ian made the wise decision not to sail on Saturday and watched the first race until they had counted more capsizes than competitors, and yes we were one of them. On the plus side we were leading at the time and were 4th after getting it up which we held for the last lap. Only 5 finished and racing was abandoned which I had to admit was the right decision despite wanting to continue. It was a good blast and I now know what maintenance should have been done over the winter.

Sunday was apparently the calm before the storm and saw 17 boats including Paul and Malcolm Whitmore going extremely well but not well enough to stop Stuart Snell and Simon Farthing from taking 3 firsts in the 4 races sailed. Overall winner was Stuart, Paul 2nd and we managed 5th but as always the most important result was the handicap. I managed to get Jim to stay for the prize giving, something to do with Guinness, and it was worth it as we received 1st handicap again. Made Jim’s day!

See you all down the beach soon. Col

Posted in E-MAIL ALL, Events, Results, Last weekend | Print | No Comments »

09/07/2007 by John.

Well I think that went very well indeed!!!………..It was a great weekend sailing, the best that i can remember for a long time now!…………..and today my body is paying for it dearly!!

I think the food side of things could not really have gone much better than it did (apart from having to much!) everybody mucked in and got the job done and everybody fed well and in a timely manner. The race organisation could not have gone better than it did! thanks to the monohull sailors for a great effort! Thanks to those that helped who perhaps didn`t need to, Ann and Roy come to mind! Thanks to Steve who worked very hard behind the scenes and in the bar! and of course thanks to the Dart families left on the beach preparing food and looking after Kids!!!….so important that they can take part too!………………..and the weather even played ball, ………..what about that for a turn up!

While its all fresh in our minds i would like to collect all the information that we can remember regarding the open organisation, and produce a file which we can refer to next year. This might help us make things easier, slicker, and more balanced in terms of food perparation etc. If possible I`m after info. on :- food sold, costs, selling prices :- Breakfast, Daytime, and Evening catering. Any detail would be appreciated. i would also like to know about how individuals thought it went. We have a kind of skeleton framework to manning the event catering, with others filling in where required! did this work or were individuals left doing more than they anticipated? Should we have published opening times for breakfast and daytime catering, would make it easier to man with definate time slots.  Should we limit the evening meal numbers? Any comments would be welcome.

 I hope you all had as good a time as I did, and thanks for the support to my initial e-mail a few weeks ago!

 john 

Posted in E-MAIL ALL, Events, Results | Print | 3 Comments »