This week’s Snow Globe attracted 31 boats and a plethora of photographers, presumably alerted to the presence of international yachtsman, Simon Fisher. Either that, or Chris Agar’s rather bright choice of sailing attire, which I understand he put to good use in the second race, with a record 6 capsizes.

Race 1 started in relatively light conditions, and while 3 intrepid sailors took to the south shore, the majority of the fleet (wisely, as it turns out…) stayed on the north shore and short tacked around the various obstacles such piles and pontoons. Well mostly, as Charlie Matthews apparently took the decision to stop off on Priors pontoon to inspect a houseboat that was for sale…. Fortunately the safety boat was quick to extricate him from the sticky situation in which he found himself.

At the front of the fleet (I’m told…) Ben Harden in the RS600 and an armada of Blazes were fighting it out, with James Hutton-Penman claiming the overall honours, along with RS200s, led by Jo Tribe on this occasion and Adam Prior upholding the honour for the Lasers, despite not having any toe-straps for much of the day.

For race 2 there was a little more breeze, a lot more tide, and a greater consensus that the north shore was the way to go, which resulted in a lot of nip and tuck racing especially as the fleet found their way around the RCYC and RBYC pontoons. Again, the racing at the front was very tight among a variety of boats, with Ben Hutton-Penman on this occasion taking a close second place on the water but first place overall in what I believe was his debut in the Blaze.

Slightly further down the fleet, Phil Aspinall was visibly relieved when SiFi turned left at Fairway 5 rather than heading out into the North Sea – we’ll wait with baited breath to see who he manages to get to come and drive the RS200 next week (sadly Sir Ben Ainslie may be a tad busy, so he may have to aim a bit closer to home !).

With 38 boats taking part, and some new faces this week, the Snow Globe is proving to be very popular with sailors and spectators alike, so Tier 3 permitting we look forward to seeing you all on the water next weekend.

Nick Milton
Rear Commodore Sailing