Thames Sailing Club
Firefly Open - 20th May 2006
TSC Hosts Firefly Open - 20th May 2006
Saturday saw Thames Sailing Club host the first half of a Firefly Open regatta, the second half taking place on Sunday at Tamesis just down the Thames - the boats raced between the two venues on Saturday evening to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the class.
TSC's famous A-Raters all left the club on Saturday morning for Bourne End, leaving the whole of the hard to host around 15 Fireflies, both old and new (sail numbers 18, 3841 and many in-between) from at least 10 different clubs, including TSC.
The day started off with showers and a deceptive blustery wind and as I headed out (in a safety boat crewed by Minima YC - thanks) for the start of the second race at 2pm there were already 3 boats that had taken on water. The start was, frankly, chaotic with the shifting wind, limited width of the river and other river traffic playing havoc with each helm's carefully laid plans for a good start. The race got underway with a planned 9 laps, however, and the wind dropped gradually as the field stretched out into a relatively relaxed race. There were some impressively choppy conditions (for the Thames) and the usual fun of negociating the other river traffic which will have made this a memorable race.
Race 3 (start pictured) started in a much more ordered fashion - only 5 of the starters were behind the start line at the gun, so the race was re-started and the entire field started together, and tacked together until they once again stretched out over the length of the race. This time only two boats led the race - 18 and 3747 - until 3747 finished a scant two hundred yards the better.
Full results and a further report are on the Firefly Open Regatta page here.
More photographs are available here.
Jason Mullins.
Page last updated: 21/06/2006 11:09:15
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