Page 27 - Folk Boat Year Book 2023

wind against tide in a freshening breeze, conditions were tough, but by the end of the
long spinnaker run, the sun was out and the winning boat F707 helmed by Ed Donald
was closely followed by Mark Hall in Raev F767. In the cruiser division after a closely
fought fight for the line F764 “Kingdom Come” Dirk Kalis was the winner with F461
“Mistress “ helmed by Colin Eales second.

This year, 2022, the National Folkboat Association were hosting visiting Europeans in
the Sessan Cup, an annual European event, and as they do not have spinnakers, our
windward leeward races were sailed “white sail” to provide some practice for the
upcoming event just two weeks later.

This proved to be beneficial as
after a delayed start due to heavy
rain there came a very light
breeze and so at the windward
mark as boats turned into the tide
everyone came to a virtual stop.
(As you might imagine there was
some shouting and rule quotes
forcible aired!) The first few boats
got away but the rest of the fleet
changed their positions rapidly until getting free of the melee and could get some
clean clear air. The wind picked up and all 3 races were eventually completed. The
overall day winner was F707 Ed Donald with a 1-4-2 winning the Ratsey and Lapthorn
Trophy with F 673 “If Only “ helmed by Ray Mitchell second with 2-1-5. Just one point
behind.

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