Topper
Topper Open Meeting, Royal Harwich Yacht Club
Eastern Area Traveller Series
It was fantastic to see 11 of the club’s Toppers competing in the open meeting on Saturday 21 May. As well as the more experienced squad sailors such as Steven Clayton and Gus Dixon there were others fairly new to racing who joined in the event. The mutual support between the sailors was excellent and it was good to see four of the junior sailors using the smaller 4.2 rig specially designed for those weighing under 45kg. This rig is better balanced and makes the boat more controllable – an important factor in Saturday’s gusty winds. With some of the sailors from the Saturday morning Volvo race training sessions not able to be present there is now an increasing nucleus of young sailors in the club, many of whom are starting to move into racing.
20 Toppers arrived to a sunny Suffolk scene and 4 back to back races in front of the clubhouse lawn on Saturday 21 May. The wind blew strongly up the river giving the competitors a beat into the flooding tide and some exciting reaches and runs on the trapezoid course. In race 1 Steven Clayton from the home club nailed the start and tacked onto port to lead the fleet up the first beat, chased hard by Penny Weiser of Cam Sailing Club. On lap 2 Penny capsized on the run to allow a handful of boats past and give Steven an easy win. With the course adjusted for race 2 and Ashley Deaton of Royal Harwich YC ashore draining his boat and looking for the missing bung spectators were treated to a very close race between fellow Youth Squad sailors Steven and Penny. The two crossed the line together with Penny judged ahead by a few centimetres.
Behind these two an established order of zone squad sailors, George Hunter from Haversham, Gus Dixon from Royal Harwich led Jack Knight from Ely. Further down the fleet the leading 4.2 sailor, Ollie Dixon was having close racing with the mid-fleet 5.3 sailors. Race 3 again saw Steven Clayton getting the best start and keeping a close cover on Penny Wieser throughout the 4 lap race. Second place for Penny meant that she could still win the event if she won the last race. Race 4 started with Steven Clayton again getting the best start and being able to tack onto port to clear the fleet. Upwind he was managing to make small gains on the shifts while the gusts downwind seemed to give the advantage to Penny and on lap three she almost took the lead only to nose dive while gybing allowing Steven to retain his lead which he extended to claim victory in the race and victory overall. Gus Dixon was fourth overall with William Louth the next club boat in 9 th. Ollie Dixon was the leading 4.2 sailor in 11 th.
The gusty wind took its toll of competitors of all ages with only 15 boats finishing the last race. Prizes were presented in the clubhouse to a backdrop of pictures taken by rescue crews during the afternoon.
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