VERNON STRATTON TROPHY

Another very windy weekend which saw no formal racing for the Stratton Trophy even for the hardy Illusionists. Although annoyingly the strong winds abated on both days as the day wore on, the tides ruled out postponing until the afternoon.

After a half hour postponement on Saturday morning to see whether the F6 SW’erly might go down a bit earlier than forecast, it was decided that it was just too windy for formal racing to go ahead. However, five hardy souls decided that they wanted to at least go out for a sail. With two safety boats on the water keeping on eye on them, they actually had great fun and proved that once they had made it up the harbour to the protection of Embankment Road, conditions were actually not that bad. Indeed although Ed Peel had returned back to the Club, the other four (Mark & Jo Downer, Rory Morrison & Monty Irwin) had two fun, non-scoring races with the finish of the second at the entrance to the Illusion Quay.  Mark was the only one to risk a spinnaker; mind you goose winging was just as fast and less risky! Well done to Jo who won both races. Vernon would have been impressed!

Leeward mark rounding during the first ‘fun’ race – https://youtu.be/hkI3X222Mjo

Some classic spinnaker control by Mark Downer in F6/F7 conditions: https://youtu.be/mQ3ZluL3by4

Conditions mid-harbour on Sunday morning were even rougher than the previous day, so the decision to cancel racing was not a difficult one to make!

The Stratton Trophy will be re-scheduled to one of the two ‘normal racing’ weekend’s left before the end of the season.”

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