Early Summer 4…
The Last race of the series and blimey! with 5 boats vying to take the series win separated by 2 points. Would Tim in the single handed ‘not a merlin’ hold on to beat John Daniels and Max Evans in the single handed ‘not a merlin class’ would Scammell / Smith or Baldwin / Read steal victory for the Merlin Rockets? with the discard to kick in after this race the maths was just to complicated, so read on…
Bored of the weather? then buy a boat, it’s always boating weather at FFSC and Wednesday proved no different. An ebb tide and a good 8 knot gradient breeze saw the OD set a course starting at the ferry (where else?) and finishing at the ferry (c’mon, what where you expecting?) with just 2 marks to remember there were no excuses for navigational errors, upriver to Oystercatcher then onto Tug, a couple of sausages and a home for an Adnams.
With a fairly strong Ebb tide running it was ‘THE’ classic start line at FFSC, timing the run back from upstream to take the gun, get the puff of breeze to get out of the pack and round past the corner, the legendary Rog ‘the splodge’ lewis ably crewed by master tactician Abi ‘the rubiks cube is to basic for me’ Hawkins and Ian ‘racing legend’ Jones showed the fleet how to do it and disappeared over the horizon.
The rest of the fleet decided to take in the recently renovated clubhouse and admire the stunning views you get from the river when drifting just outside the clubhouse….
The next boat to remember that there was a race on Scammell / Smith in 3543 worked hard to get round the corner with Guy Pearse, Ed ‘newly crowned Nat. champ’ Swain, Tim (whatever happened to ‘follow me’) o’Leary in pursuit.
Still enjoying tea and biscuits with the as yet to start multihull fleet Baldwin / Read and Last / Fisk remained calm (NB we have to say that, but i would guess the blood pressure was rising at an alarming rate on board Deception and the laser 2000).
At the front of the fleet Lewis / Hawkins rounded Oystercatcher a slightly messy hoist on board of the ‘shocking’ pink kite (now we are being picky) and they headed for the hills (well laid inflatable ‘Tug’) closely followed by Ian Jones. Scammell / Smith overhauled Evans on the fetch to Oystercatcher rounded and up went the ‘Storm’ (you have to see it to believe it.
Next round Evans, followed by Pearse, then National Champion Ed Swain (you see just because you have won a major event like the nationals, or Cowes, or Texcel doesn’t mean you are invincible)
At laid inflatable ‘Tug’ Lewis /Hawkins extended, however the crew work on the ‘kiwi drop’ was not as neat as usual but much to Scammell / Smiths disappointment was tidied away with no fuss. Jones rounded next closely followed by Scammell /Smith
A short upwind back to Oyster catcher saw Scammell / Smith close on Jones but he led them round Oystercatcher for the 2nd time, by this point it was hard to tell where Lewis / Hawkins had got as they were clearly showing what an ‘horizon job’ looked like.
Scammell / Smith finally overhauled Jones on the 2nd kite down to ‘Tug’ with the on the water places now set it was a straight sail home to take the gun and go enjoy the recently renovated clubhouse with a nice pint of modestly priced adnams and Patricks curry….
After handicapping (yes that’s a thing) Lewis / Hawkins dropped to 4th!! Ian Jones won followed by John Daniels, Ed Swain (well done you singlehanded wannabe Merlin sailors!)
as always, thanks to the OD’s, the safety boat crews and last but not least the crow’s nest team (“you girrrrls, youda best!).
Well done to John Daniels for the series win
Thanks also to Spratt and Scam and Suffolk Sails for results…watch out we have room for more improvements!!!
“the results??”
“where dey at bruv??”
“blud, dey on de results blog”
“dude! where dat?”
“here: http://www.suffolksails.net/early-summer-4/”

“that Raceqs stuff you did last time, where’s that?”
“why of course sir, just click on this link and you can watch Storm cloud stick it to em. raceqs.com/tv-beta/tv.htm#userId=1014387&updatedAt=2018-07-05T07:00:46Z&dt=2018-07-04T18:51:42+01:00..2018-07-04T19:59:22+01:00&boat=Storm%20Cloud&model=FlyingDutchman&time=1530727427344&focus=Storm%20Cloud&tab=fleet&view=auto&rival=Deception