Topper open meeting at Tamesis Club, Saturday 26th October
Published 19:36 on 26 Oct 2024
Tamesis Club hosted the Autumn 8 round of the London & Southeast regional Topper series on Saturday 26th October 2024.
Although the river gods were obliging - no heavy rain in the last few days adversely affecting the river flow; the wind gods were not. Despite a forecast of 3-8 knots, the wind never crept above zero for more than a hopeful moment or two.
As such, a couple of pathfinder ferrets keen to show-off their roll-tacking skills still failed to make progress against what was a rather modest river flow (115m3/sec at Kingston Bridge) and more than demonstrated that drastic action was required by the Race Team.
Big thanks to Erica Bishop for the suggestion. The entire fleet of 17 boats was towed upstream to Kingston Railway Bridge and a Fun Race was set underway - World Sailing Racing Rules were temporarily suspended. Three prizes to be awarded to the first boats to get back to the Club Start/Finish Line by any means possible.
Who knew that a Topper sailor lying tummy down on the foredeck, rudder all-the-way up, centreboard halfway could generate quite so much speed. The Lay brothers have clearly been practising; all those early mornings at Walton Swimming Club paid off dividends.
The sailors retired for lunch and ping pong but unfortunately no more wind was blowing in the afternoon so racing was formally abandoned.
Many thanks to the Race Officer (Matt Dalton) and all the Safety Boat crews.
The regatta trophy, the Murray Vines Optimist Cup - rumoured once to have been won by Sir Ben Ainslie, was not awarded this year. However, the Tamesis Club open meeting has been moved to a date in May next year, preliminarily scheduled for Saturday 24th May 2025, so please come back then for some more wind and sunshine!
Final Results (Fun Race)
- Oscar Lay
- Toby Lay
- Thomas Matthews
Downloads
Last updated 19:46 on 26 October 2024