For club racing on the 27th April, the Grafham Flying Fifteen fleet invited all current and past members to join in for the day to remember our fellow sailor Graham who sadly passed away earlier in the year after many decades campaigning a fifteen here and around the world.
A trophy for this one off event was carved specially by Jonathan Knight for the event with three races over the Sunday with one discard. With 16 boats signed on and sailors coming from all over the country to join in- including one keen sailor flying in from Madrid- it was really not an option to postpone regardless of the forecast.
So despite 2 knots across the lake at 0900, plenty of activity was taking place and several boats which hadn’t sailed for some time were being coaxed back to life and tuned to perfection.
Race 1 got away smoothly with the leading pack managing to break away, as often happens in very light winds with Dave & Harry Lucas taking top spot.
R2 was probably the lightest of the 3 races and those of us not in the leading pack came to a stop down the run as the wind switched off completely. Eventually we all got going and the wind picked up again for the finish with Dave and Harry again ahead of the pack.
R3 had some thrills and spills at the start line, with again a leading pack managing to break away. Some really close racing in the very flukey conditions saw Jon & Trish Knight take the win with a huge lead over the rest of the fleet.So with one discard , Dave and Harry were overall winners, well deserved in extremely tricky conditions. They received the trophy and kindly gave it to Celia to keep.
Prizegiving and drinks afterwards was attended by a large group, over 50, of current and ex-FF sailors and it really was fantastic to get everyone together to celebrate the day. In addition to the trophy Graham’s Final prize a Gill voucher was won by Bob Gatton and Jon Forsdyke by a lucky dip. Thank you to everyone who attended, helped organise and especially to Celia, Graham’s wife who very kindly provided refreshments. More photographs of the event can be viewed here .