GUNFLEET Sailing Club held their pursuit race for the Chase Trophy, with Ken Potts taking the honours in his Laser.

At 11am, the Topper class got underway with Harrison Smith powering his boat into a north-easterly breeze as he beat up the coast to the Kingscliff buoy, assisted by a freshly-ebbing tide.

Almost nine minutes later, the Comet class set off and the chase was on as Peter Downer headed after Smith.

They were followed after another six minutes by the GP14s, with Dave Fowell and Daisy Swinbourne having a surprisingly poor start, while Derroll Pedder and Michael Gutteridge showed them how to be “right on the button”.

This time the gap was just three minutes before six Lasers took flight.

A staggering 44 minutes after the Topper left the starting blocks, it was the turn of the visiting catamarans from Clacton Sailing Club to give chase and three magnificent Hurricanes had a tight and closely-bunched start.

The finale was to have been Pete Boxer on his elegant A class catamaran but, as his class flag fell from the yardarm, he was way out to sea, presumably in a world of his own.

The course took the competitors down to Clacton Pier with all points of sailing and, as the first lap was almost concluded, it was an impressive looking Smith that still hung onto first place in his Topper.

However, a gust of wind caused him to capsize, spoiling his chances of maintaining the lead, despite an incredibly speedy recovery.

It then became clear that the Lasers were, at that moment in time, very strong contenders to win the race, with Potts leading, Rob Lockett second and Andy Dunnett third.

However, the three Hurricanes were certainly not going to make it easy and, with their amazing power, they were quickly picking off their rivals.

Just to add to the fun, the cats were changing places among themselves, so it was a real race within a race.

The downwind legs were particularly spectacular as the colourful asymmetric spinnakers were hoisted and they put on the power.

Brian Allen and Rob Mitchell led the cats, with Larry Foxon and Dan Brzezinski sitting just behind.

However, on the second lap, Mark and George Venables seized an opportunity to pull ahead, finishing sixth overall, just ahead of Allen and Mitchell in fifth place, with the top four positions going to Gunfleet Lasers.

Results: The Chase: 1 Laser – Ken Potts, 2 Laser – Andy Dunnett, 3 Laser – Rob Lockett.

In the afternoon, the club held the race for the Jubilee Cup that had been postponed from a few weeks previous due to bad weather conditions.

The start made an impressive sight and nine dinghies headed, close hauled, up the coast to the Kingscliff buoy.

Once round the mark, it was a reach round the AWS buoy and down to the Eastcliff mark, before a beat out to Seaward, a run back to Eastcliff and finally close-hauled home.

John Tappenden was convinced he had the correct course - only to start having doubts when everyone else went in a different direction.

This led to an early retirement.

Potts, once again, pulled into the lead and became unstoppable, try as the others might, while Downer, in his Comet, looked a force to be reckoned with until the wind changed in strength and left him halfway down the fleet.

Yet again, it became a Laser-dominated event.

Results: Jubilee Cup: 1 Laser – Ken Potts, 2 Laser – Andy Dunnett, 3 Laser – Rob Lockett.