CLACTON Sailing Club’s Spring Cup race was held in delightful conditions.

The recent run of success by the catamarans came to an abrupt end with monohulls taking first and second place once the handicaps had been calculated.

John Summerfield, this year sporting a new single-handed Solo dinghy, pulled back from a bad start to win overall, closely followed by James Foxon, sailing his Laser One.

Open class racing allows different types of dinghies and catamaran to race together with times adjusted at the end.

This can create some confusion to spectators but it becomes a true test of individual sailing skill and judgement with sailors racing the same course both against each other and against the clock.

The light offshore winds kept the seas mirror flat on the start line and it was easy for the race officer to call ‘over-early’ for both John Summerfield and Martin and Debbie Chivers, as they were caught in the ebbing tide.

Both boats had to re-start and set off from last place to chase with everything to play for.

Matt Burrell and Jack Wayland got away clean in their Dart 18 to make the perfect start but were closely pursued by a pack including Mark and George Venables, sailing their Dart 16 for the first time.

Liam and Ian Wright, also sailing a Dart 18, over-hauled Matt on the way out to the first buoy and Rob Mitchell (Dart 16) and Dan Brzezinski (Dart 18), whose crew Jack Dempsey was first out of the trapeze wire, also continue this season to show promise as they sailed offshore into steadier wind speeds.

Beating back into the beach and Larry Foxon and Mike Rolfe, in the Hurricane 5.9, out-pointed the Darts to round the ODM in first position to start the downwind leg of the sausage.

Summerfield’s Solo, Sam Ranson (Laser 2) and James Foxon (Laser 1) were able to sail notably deeper downwind as they headed back out to the seaward buoy.

Positions changed frequently in the course that was dominated by directly upwind / downwind sailing and really tested technical sailing skills and the ability to read the subtle offshore wind shifts.

Out at sea again, Rob Mitchell (Dart 16) was tight of the stern of the Wright’s 18 and, as the chasing bunch of cats hardened-up to complete the first sausage, Mitchell split tacks in a classic strategy, hoping to pick up a wind shift advantage in the long beat back to end the first lap.

By the end of the first lap, Martin and Debbie Chivers were starting to get back into the race after their over-early but were again caught by the tide and touched the ODM, requiring them to perform a 360-penalty.

The catamarans completed three laps and the monohulls just two and the boats finished in close procession.

Special mention goes to commodore Derek Cheek, more usually to be found taking care of the logistics, to allow other people to sail, who this week enjoyed competing racing in his Dart 18 catamaran.

In an exciting finish, Sam Ranson called water ahead of James Foxon as they luffed-up around the ODM and had the satisfaction of crossing the finish line less than a second ahead.

James Foxon was of course many seconds ahead in his Laser One on handicap and is starting to show his race potential for a creditable second place overall.