CLACTON Sailing Club members joined in the global sailing event Bart’s Bash.

It is named after Andrew (Bart) Simpson, the Olympic gold medallist who died tragically in 2013 while training for the America’s Cup.

Bart’s Bash funds a charity that encourages young people to sail.

Last year, through sailing events across the world, there were 7,200 contestants.

Clacton Sailing Club members won four of the top-ten places and they were keen to support this worthy charity again this year.

At 11.15am, the claxton started the first of two back-to-back races around a measured course against the stopwatch.

In the first race, line honours went to James Foxon, in his Laser, hotly pursued by Stelios, in his Nacra 20, pipping the accomplished team of Pete Boxer and Eilish Dempsey, in their Dart 18 catamaran.

The race was now on with the competitors trying to complete as many 1,800m laps as possible in the allocated time.

Larry Foxon and Mike Rolfe soon developed a commanding lead in their superfast Hurricane 5.9 catamaran, knowing that on their handicap rating they had to lead the fleet by a considerable distance.

Foxon was followed by a procession of smaller catamarans, including Dart 16s and a single Laser.

The winners of the first race were Boxer and Dempsey, on handicap, in their Dart 18, beating Foxon and Rolfe by the narrowest of margins, having travelled more than 11,000m.

With the wind dropping, race two was run on a reduced length encouraging close quarter racing.

This benefited the nimble Laser, helmed by Foxon, leading to a commanding win.

On handicap the honours for second place were closely fought between the Boxer-Dempsey team and the Foxon-Rolfe combination.

Foxon and Rolfe took second place by just 20 seconds.

All members agreed it was another very successful event, with all sailors not only enjoying the racing but also supporting a very worthy charity.