Maidenhead sailing club hosted the 2nd open meeting in the Solo Thames Valley Series on Saturday 19th April. 10 visitors and 6 home boats took part.

Weather conditions were far improved on those experienced in the first Thames valley open meeting at Littleton, where 2 inches of snow fell all over the South East of England. At Maidenhead, we had grey skies, 10 degrees and variable and shifting winds between 10mph and 16 mph. This set the stage for some very close racing with each race being won by a different helm.

In race 1 the wind was at it’s strongest just at the start of this race and a couple of capsizes on the start line called for fast reactions from the rest of the fleet as they tried to secure the best start position. This was a very competitive race where the lead changed 3-4 times, primarily between local hero Jon Hirsh and Steve Jones (Littleton SC). Jon eventually crossed the line less than 30 seconds ahead of Steve and the first 6 boats all finished within a minute of the winning boat.

A small course change was made for race 2 to accomodate a change in wind direction, the breeze had also eased down to around 10 mph. Godfrey Clarke (Fishers Green SC) fought his way to the front after a poor start and beat off the challenge from Daniel Goodman (Kingsmead SC) to retain the lead at the finish of the race.

15 of the 16 entries sailed in race 3. At this point any of 5 boats could still win the event. The racing was tight all the way through. Godfrey Clarke made his way to the front and had all the fleet covered as he ran to the final mark. But at this point disaster struck. He was hit by a “gust from nowhere” (Godfrey’s words, not mine), the boat was over on top on him and he was swimming! This let Daniel Goodman through claim the race and the event.  Daniel was followed by Joe McLaughlin (Tamesis SC) and Clive Evans (Reading SC).

The final results of the event were: