Littleton Lake Sailing club hosted the first regatta of the new academic year for Surrey Schools and affiliated groups on Saturday October 14, 2000.
An excellent entry of 52 boats, a record turnout in recent years, enjoyed a very competitive days sailing in a gentle southerly breeze that freshened to force 2 with occasional gusts to catch out the newer sailors. The twelve classes of boats entered included 26 Toppers, seven of them from newly affiliated Island Barn Reservoir Sailing Club Juniors.
In the class races, eight Enterprises competed for the Commodores trophy, Andrew and Bobby Weaver of Wey Adventure Group beating the Therfield boats of Russell Flint and Jo Manby by 58 seconds with Chris Enston and Ian Sherriffs 92 seconds further back. The usually strongly contested Laser class was down to 3 boats mainly due to a number of last year's sailors reaching the age limit. The experience of Charles Roome of Royal Grammar School showed the way, beating Catherine Manders of Therfield by 4 minutes. The hotly contested Topper Class saw the first six boats cross the line within 60 seconds, with Sophie Jones of Island Barn scoring their first success, 32 seconds ahead of Andrew Beacorn -RGS, who was 4 seconds in front of Michelle Phillips (Island Barn).
First and second in the Scratch race were the Optimists of James Britton and Sam Maxfield both from RGS. The British Moth of Adam Baxter - Desborough SC finished well ahead on the water but the PY put him in third place.
Three Handicap races were completed. In the Fast Fleet, Roome (Laser) with two firsts beat Baxter (British Moth) with a first and second by one point, with Enston and Sherrifs (Enterprise} third. In the Slow Fleet, Beacorn in his Topper, with two firsts beat Thomas Buffam-Topaz (RGS) by a point with Island Barn's Stephen Tindale (Topper) third. Three races were sailed in the Junior Fleet, Maxfield -Optimist beating Britton - Optimist by a narrow margin in all 3 races.
Littleton's Commodore, John Jones, presented the prizes and remarked on the enthusiasm of the youngsters and the excellent turnout.
To see the full results, click here.
Last updated: 8 October, 2002