Notts County Sailing Club Virtual Spring Regatta

Notts County Sailing Club Virtual Spring Regatta © David Eberlin

Notts County Sailing Club have like many clubs been closed completely till recently, we are now open for casual sailing, so the annual Spring Regatta had to be cancelled. However the club organised a Virtual Regatta through VirtualRegatta.com via the RYA offer to clubs.

As many had been practising we split fleets into Experienced, Rookie (to gaming) and Junior. There was also a hard fought Team Race as well. So all the usual ingredients, just virtually, and with a virtual bar. All fleets had three races a day starting at set times from late afternoon onwards. A special WhatsApp group allowed communication, and photo of beer along with lots of good natured chatter.

The Juniors had three days of racing. The first day seeing three winners Charles, Heather, Goergia. Day 2 saw Heather, Arthur and Goergia win, giving Heather a slight lead. The final day saw many of the fleet out in their real Toppers, so there were some absentees. This gave Charles who had beavering away getting consistent results into the lead, he won one race and had two seconds, Heather finished second whilst Arthur had two firsts bringing him up the rankings. Some great racing and plenty of fun.

Junior Results:

1st Charles
2nd Heather
3rd Arthur

The Rookie racing had two days of practise races, with the first race in Stars, everyone finished within 90 seconds of each other, so a change to J70, and finally in offshore racers. Brazil was the venue for day 2 with Stars as the first fleet, Icon Martin won two races, with JamesW second. So the final race was in 49ers High-Jass won by a good margin. The final day saw a tactical race in the star JamesW won by 0.1 sec. Then it was into J70s with JamesW taking his second victory it was going to be a close finish. So out came a new boat - the Nacra Snapper won. Overall it was on countback between JamesW and Icon, who was the overall victor.

Rookie Results:

1st Martin Payne
2nd James Whittington
3rd Phil Dyne

The experienced fleet saw 18 competitors and a crowded start line, there were quite a few penalties! Racing was in 49ers was equally exciting (one boat had 11 penalties). After the first day it was young Sam Grayton (4.2 topper champion). The second day only just started, as some had gone sailing for real in the afternoon (including the organiser - nothing beats the real thing!).

The Star race saw a port end start pay, the run saw some very close competition, with 5m separating the top three, and they finished within a second of each other. The 49er race saw quite a few penalties. The racing was still very close, so all to play for. With two sailors joining from the Rookie fleet. The second race saw a Rookie win, and the final race was won by the instigator (and Rokkie Race Officer) Tim Cripps.

Experienced Results:

1st Matt Potter
2nd Alan Beaton
3rd Sam Grayton

The Team Racers saw five Teams with Team 3 winning. Again on day two Team 3, 4.5 were tied on points, everything to play for on the final day. Again racing was close on the final day, Bank Holiday Monday Team 5 won by a point (Matt Buchan, Simon Parker and Ross Ryan).

Full results and more in depth reporting on ncsc.org.uk/2020/04/29/virtual-may-regatta

Notts County Sailing Club Virtual Spring Regatta - photo © David Eberlin