A bright day and moderate breeze greeted the 16 boats competing for the Chris Black memorial trophy in the Gill Sprint 15 Winter TT.

With the southerly wind forecast to swing to the East, Race Officer Nigel Denchfield,  anchored the committee boat close to the Northern shore to set the Sprint 15 square course alongside Grafham’s club racing marks.  Four Yellow/Orange pillar buoys identified the course for the  Sprint 15’s to navigate over 3 back-to-back races.

Race 1 set off promptly and the Sprint 15’s were first away having been promoted above the club sailors for the day.  The wind was Southerly which meant the beat remained quite central and as the fleet got off the line Mark Aldridge in 66 was first around the windward mark closely followed by Steve Sawford (1989) and Jenny Ball (2025), Paul Craft (1982), Stuart Snell (2022) and Ed Tuite Dalton (2023). 

The top reach was square and sufficiently away from the South shore to give uninterrupted wind onto the run down to the leeward mark.  Aldridge took an early gybe to keep an inside line downwind as did Sawford, however J.Ball went further out to try and find some extra pressure.  The bottom reach was quite broad and heading up around mark 3 enabled the line to be fetched on port tack, so one less tack on the 2^nd beat saw the positions up front remain the same for lap 2.

However, in lap 3 Sawford took Aldridge on the beat having gone left where Aldridge picked a more central line through the club Laser fleet.  This wasn’t the fastest course and Sawford rounded the windward mark in the lead.  Aldridge managed to get in front of Sawford on the 3^rd run and lead over the line into lap 4 with J.Ball in 3^rd, Craft in 4^th and Tuite Dalton 5^th.  Sawford then proceeded to sail away from Aldridge in a stellar performance. J.Ball also overtook Aldridge who was taking on water due to a lost port hatch cover and going slower and slower.  Race 1 finished with Sawford victorious, J.Ball 2^nd, Aldridge listing 3^rd, Craft 4^th, Tuite Dalton 5^th and D.Ball 6^th.

Between races, Aldridge called upon a safety RIB to try to source a hatch cover, but to no avail so it was an early bath for number 66.

In race 2, Craft was first around the windward mark, followed by J.Ball, D.Ball, Tuite Dalton and Sawford which is where the positions remained on to the second lap.  Sawford and D.Ball went off to the left side of the beat as the other leaders stayed on the right side. This made little difference to Craft who was starting to extend his lead quite considerably followed by Tuite Dalton, D.Ball, J.Ball and Sawford onto lap 3.  Over the line after 3 laps by some considerable margin was a lonely Craft, Tuite Dalton, J.Ball, Sawford, D.Ball and young gun Jason Clarke getting some better boat speed.

Race 3 got underway with reduced pressure and a slight swing to the East.  Clarke was now dialled in and in pole position off the line. J.Ball tacked off to try the right side of the beat which did not pay with race 2 winner Craft also tacking off a little further up that leg to no avail.  At the windward mark it was Clarke in the lead which proved to be a good safe position as Elfring crash-tacked to round mark 1. This didn’t quite go to plan and he capsized on top of Sandells who was having his best race of the day until that point.  Craft, in avoiding the carnage caught the buoy and did his penalty turn.

As the fleet came around to lap 2, Clarke and D.Ball were battling it out swapping positions although it was Clarke who rounded mark 1 first, then D.Ball, Snell, Craft and J.Ball.  Lap 3 saw Clarke keeping his lead despite various manoeuvres around the course by D.Ball, sister J.Ball, Snell, Craft and Sawford and race 3 concluded the day’s racing with Jamie Clarke victorious.

Final positions for the day were 1^st Paul Craft (Worthing Sailing Club), 2^nd Steven Sawford (Rutland Water SC) and 3^rd Jenny Ball (Marconi SC).  The overall winter series was also concluded with Class Chairman Ed Tuite Dalton the winner, Paul Craft in 2^nd and Jenny Ball 3^rd. Judith Black and her daughter attended the prizegiving to present the Chris Black trophy to Paul Craft in memory of Grafham Sprint 15 Grand Master Chris. Grafham Water Sailing Club and the Sprint 15 class association would  like to thank Gill for supporting the event and the prizegiving.

It’s great to see the fleet youngsters doing well and winning races. Congratulations to Jason who worked hard for his win after been pushing the fleet hard recently. Note that all 3 races were won with the ‘older’ boats, so no matter how new your boat or equipment it’s the nut on the tiller that’s the important part. Do remember to put you hatch covers on properly!

Thank you to all visiting boats, club sailors, our race committee, GWSC safety fleet and shore staff in making this an excellent event.

More photographs of the event can be viewed at the Grafham Water SC Photo Gallery

Report by Mark Aldridge. All photos © Paul Sanwell/OPP

We kicked off 2022 in fine style with the New Year Regatta. Despite a forecast that was challenging, 42 boats took to the water and experienced mean winds of 15-18 kts, on top of which the occasional gust in the low 20s moved through. The mean axis stayed on 220 degrees all day, and the wind strength required a long opening beat, so the Committee boat anchored upwind of club mark R, allowing a 1000m beat off the line whilst keeping the windward mark significantly downwind of club W, well away from the lumpy wind around the windward shore. The bay between R and P allowed the leeward mark to be placed another 200m downwind of the start line. Three different race courses were sailed so that no one type of boat was favoured, and with all 3 races to count consistency was going to be the key to success. And so it proved…

The tricky P course was sailed first, and once on the reaches – a mere 500m long – the boats lucky enough to pick a gust flew along. But then came the grind of a 1200m beat! The fast fleet were able to complete 3 laps at around 13-15minutes a lap, but the race team took pity on the hiking boats by giving them just 2 which was quite enough!

The 4000 of Reynolds/Bartoli took the win, closely followed by the RS500 sailed by team Curtis, the Radial of Tim Evans and the FF15 Kneller/Painter combination.The trapezoid came next and most of the fleet stayed out for it. This produced a different mixture at the top, but Curtis and Evans were still in there at 1 & 2, with the Heffernan/Howell 4000 in third.

It was great to see so many young Team Grafham sailors joining in with the regatta, especially given the taxing conditions,

Overall, Tim Evans was a well-deserved winner, he was scarily fast! Second went to Reynolds/Bartoli and third to Kneller/Painter.  A Radial, 4000 and FF15 – three very different boats. See the full results here.

Many thanks go to the race management team who volunteered at quite short notice to create the event. The RIB teams of Bill & Katie Parish, Paul Sanwell, Ian Hewitt and Stephen Graham. The race courses owed their success to the accurate mark laying masterminded by Bill & Katie. In the Committee boat were Nigel Denchfield and the A-team of time keepers & recorders, Fiona Denchfield and Lynn Clarke, with Chris Clarke.  It was extremely busy in the boat, especially when all those Solos and Lasers came through each lap, and the RO only managed to drink his cocoa near the end of race 2. It was very rocky-roly too, the team had to work hard to prevent clocks, flasks and other kit flying across the boat.