Lowestoft Race at Great Yarmouth & Gorleston Sailing Club

The Annual Lowestoft Race is one of the highlights of the racing season for the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Sailing Club. The race course stretches from a start close to the club house at Gorleston beach and continues south along the coast to Lowestoft harbour followed by a return leg back to the club house. The distance is approximately 15 miles and the strong tide ensures that competitors have to consider tidal as well as wind conditions in deciding the quickest course to sail.

Although the forecast predicted strong winds only a light breeze from the south west was present in the morning. This race is timed to start so that the last of the flood tide takes the boats down to Lowestoft; with the the tide then turning & ebbing to return the fleet back to Yarmouth.

A total of 20 boats entered for the race including several guest entries from the nearby Rollesby and Hickling & Oulton Broad Sailing Clubs. The fleet contained many different classes of boats with the asymmetric classes well represented including RS 800s, RS 400s, a B14 and an RS 500, the catamarans included Hobie F18s and a Dart single hander; the remaining boats consisted of Javelins, 505s, Fireballs, a Laser, a Contender, a Wayfarer and a Albacore. OOD for the race was Richard Fryer who set a short beat from the start line before the boats headed off to Lowestoft.

At the start of the race the lead was taken by Dick Roe/Kate Dulieu in their B14 but eventually towards the end of the outgoing leg the B14 was caught by the F18's & RS800's with Mark Quale in an F18 first to round the Lowestoft buoy he was followed by the F18’s of both Daffy Holmes and Dave Abbott, next to round were RS 800 of Chris Sallis & the B14. However a significant lull combined with tide still flooding enabled the remainder of the fleet to catch up and give an advantage to the slower boats.

The majority of the faster boats opted to go offshore to pick up more wind, with the slower boats deciding to hug the shore line back to Gorleston to get out of the tide. The result was a widely separated fleet for the return leg with some boats sailing up to a mile offshore to find favourable wind.

As the sea breeze kicked in offshore it looked liked the faster boats might still have their day but as the fleet convirged at the finish after over 2 hours of sailing all finished within 15 minutes. Ultimately it was one of those rare days that favoured the slower boats and for the first time in many years the race was not won by a club sailor. In first and second places were the guest boats of Robert Sparrow and Dennis Manning in a Wayfarer and an Albacore respectively; Darell Tupper-Carey was third in his Laser.

Overall Results: