Thames Sailing Club
The Dennis Peters Trophy
Thames Sailing Club celebrated former member Dennis Peters who sadly passed away in January 2006 with the inaugural Dennis Peters' Trophy on Sunday 23rd September 2007. The event also coincided with the Kingston upon Thames Queens' Promenade RNLI celebration day and Thames Sailing Club had 
arranged to run one of the races further up the river so the RNLI spectators could get a ringside view of the graceful Thames A Raters.
The Racing featured a slightly different format than usual whereby the helms compete for the Trophy rather than the boat as a whole. Each helm rotated around the different boats entered and the crews stayed with their boats, but crews were also able to compete for a prize. Four boats arrived to take part; Caprice, Osprey, Lady Iona and Lady Jane.
The day started with a sit down breakfast of smoked salmon, warm buns, sausages and coffee to send the competitors off to race with a full tummy. With a short pit stop around midday for barbequed sardines, the competitors then headed up to the Queens' Promenade to start their race opposite the RNLI tent, there were many spectators and hopefully the delicate Thames A Raters gained a few more fans that afternoon.
Racing finished around 3pm with Paul Browning winning the opportunity to add his name first to this spectacular trophy made of Portuguese Silver and enclosed in a hand made mahogany case built by Clive Wylam. Kevin Pearson came in second and David Lowrie third, the crew of Lady Iona consisting of Ian Pratt and Nick Hoskins took the winning place for the crews with Nick Fribbens and Melanie Hardman of Lady Jane following up in second, finally Susie Scotcher and Chris Martin were third in Caprice.
The day ended with a glorious supper of Cornish "Rabbit" casserole, apple pie and Cornish Ice cream and Cornish cheddar cheese and biscuits (If you hadn't already guessed Dennis hailed from Cornwall). The weather was really fantastic, perfect sailing conditions and a nearly consistent breeze made the competition very exciting, but there were no accidents, no collisions and I think that everyone that attended would agree a wonderful days sailing and eating was had by all.
Text by Mel Hardman. Pictures Courtesy of Clive Wylam and Andre Bajaria
For more images of the racing see Andre's pictures and April's pictures
For futher pictures of the awards ceremony go to Dennis Peters awards ceremony
Click Here for Dennis Peters Trophy Rules
Page last updated: 07/11/2007 13:15:51
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