DESPITE a light wind forecast, there was a good turn-out of catamarans and dinghies as Clacton Sailing Club raced for the John Bedford Cup.

First presented by Charles Holiday in 1978, in memory of John Bedford, this annual trophy was won this year by Rob Mitchell, sailing his distinctive yellow and blue Dart 16 catamaran single-handed.

The 1100 weekly Sunday races are started by sound and visual signals from the cliff-top clubhouse and the variety of boats manoeuvre in the final seconds to protect their positions on the line.

Mitchell demonstrated his experience and made a second-perfect port tack start, using the light south-westerly winds to stem the effect of the flooding tide, closely followed by James Parsons and Mark Venables, in the Hurricane.

Two of the Dart 18s soon tacked out to sea to escape the confused wind from the pack leaders, hoping also to benefit from the increased tidal flow offshore. Poor judgement by Pete Boxer and Eilish Dempsey meant they had to put in two additional tacks to avoid Martin and Debbie Chivers, as they crossed on starboard tack but fought back to a creditable second place overall.

The tactical beat was followed by a long run downwind against the tide.

Sheets and rig tension were loosened and crews positioned themselves as far forward as they dared, in attempts to reduce transom drag.

Matt Burrell, with Jack Wayland in the big Hurricane 5.9SX, hoisted the asymmetric kite and soon overtook the entire fleet.

They were first to the leeward buoy and went on to be placed third overall on handicap.

Daniel Brzezinski and Jack Dempsey made gains downwind in their Dart 18 and started to put pressure on the Chivers team.

Finally, in the third lap, good teamwork and intense concentration allowed them to edge past to be the second 18’ cat home.

The Dart 18 fleet was joined by the welcome return of experienced local cat sailors Dave Raffbone and Tony Smith.

Teething problems with their mainsail halyard connection meant they were late off the line and were never really in contention but they enjoyed their first outing nevertheless.

Another new face on the race scene this year, Jamie Lowe, in his Topaz dinghy, came in ahead of regular Brian Allen, in his Laser, to be the first Cadet home.

Rob and Cathy Mitchell seem to have re-discovered the joys of sailing with a Dart 16 this season and managed a very respectable fourth overall.

Commodore Derek Cheek kept his nerve on the second lap when it looked like the wind was dying and avoided the temptation to shorten the course. Competitors were rewarded as the wind freshened and swung southerly and the final run turned into an exhilarating reach as a reward.