Sunday racing at the Norfolk Punt Club

Yare & Bure One Designs at the Norfolk Punt Club © James Arthur

For probably the first Sunday during the season the weather forecast promised warm and sunny with moderate breezes and so it proved.

Barton Broad had a smile on her face, and so did those members who turned out for the first race. With the Punt Championships in two weekends time it was good to see a fleet competing and in keeping with expectations the first series was dominated by the Punts with Y&BOD's chasing hard, but not hard enough.

In the first afternoon race the leading punt chose to go the wrong way around one of the marks, followed by the chasing pair, leading to retirement. This allowed the Y&BOD to come to the podium and the next Y&BOD series was a great race, with the lead changing hands and the whole fleet chasing honours right to the end, with Simon and Fil Daniels retaining their usual position in spite of a fickle wind shift at a critical point.

The wind had strengthened by mid afternoon and excellent sailing was enjoyed as the clouds built and rain threatened.

Thanks to OOD David Adler and his team for an excellent day's sailing.

11.30 All-comers 13 starters
1. Decoy (Punt) Simon Clayton
2. Merlin (Punt) Drew. Wilton
3 Cavender (Punt) Robin Slatter

13.25 Faster handicap all-comers 12 starters
1. Decoy (Punt) Simon Clayton
2. Silver Blue (Y&BOD) Simon Daniels
3. Cupido (Y&BOD) Kath Mason

13.30 Slower handicap all-comers 2 starters
1. Kedge Gal (Bittern) Bruce Thompson
2. Catch-me (Bittern) J. Leventon

14.30 YBOD 8 starters
1. Silver Blue Simon Daniels
2. Zephyrus Liz Chettleburgh
3. Tortoiseshell Phil Ollier

14.35 Faster handicap all-comers 6 starters
1. Decoy (Punt) Simon Clayton
2. Prawn (Punt) Bill Glover
3. Merlin (Punt) Drew Wilton

14.40 Slower handicap all-comers 2 starters
1. Topper - T. Wilson

16.00 Faster handicap 5 starters
1. Decoy (Punt) Simon Clayton
2. Frosted Orange (Punt) Simon Girling
3. Cavender (Punt) Robin Slatter