Back to Top

  • Welcome to Wealden Sailability

  • WE LOVE WHAT WE DO

    Nullam dignissim convallis est.Quisque aliquam. Donec faucibus. Nunc iaculis suscipit dui.Nam sit amet sem. Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at, tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula, nisl.Praesent mattis, massa quis luctus fermentum, turpis mi volutpat justo, eu volutpat enim diam eget metus.Maecenas ornare tortor.


    ABOUT 7EVEN CANONS

WS RACING – THE PETER HAZLEWOOD TROPHY – 2018 WINNER

To conclude the 2018 WS Racing Award Ceremony, John King, a  WS Trustee, told everybody about a new prize which is called The Peter Hazlewood Trophy, named after a long-standing member of Chipstead Sailing Club  who died during the year and, in whose memory, friends and family had  made donations to Wealden Sailability.  John  reminisced how he had competed against  Peter Hazlewood over a few decades in the Scorpion dinghy class of  the club and recalled a man who always felt that the best sailors over the season should be appropriately recognised. So the WS Trustees, in discussion with Peter’s widow and family,  had decided that this Trophy would be awarded to the best  WS Racer over the whole season.

John King presented The Peter Hazlewood Trophy to its first recipient, Mike Blatchford who had shown his racing ability and tenacity by winning both the Spring  and Summer Series covering 26 races between May and October 2018.

 

WS RACING – 2018 SEASON AWARDS CEREMONY – 25th OCT

The Certificates and Prizes were handed out to the winners by the Wealden Sailability Trustee responsible for WS Racing activities , Mike Coleman,  in front of an enthusiastic crowd who applauded the winners’ achievements. John King, another WS Trustee, addressed the crowd (below) about a new award for which WS Racers will be able to compete  – The Peter Hazlewood Trophy. 

Our winners of the Summer Series  are: 1st Mike Blatchford, 2nd Martin Newman and 3rd Malcolm Hill. all pictured below with their certificates and they were also given a printed WS Race Winners Coffee Mug!!

Our winners of the Spring Series , raced between April and July, were also recognised with certificates and appropriately  printed coffee mugs. They were 1st Mike Blatchford, 2nd  David Mason and 3rd Martin Newman. Unfortunately David was unable to attend the prize giving ceremony so instead he is shown below sailing his 2.4m #109 to victory during the season:

All the other WS Racers who had completed at least 5 Races in either or both Race Series in 2018 were awarded a Certificate of Qualification

The full details of the WS Racing Results for 2018 are:

Spring Series Result 

Podium

1st was Mike Blatchford (10 points – Best five finishes 1 1 2 3 3)

2nd was David Mason (11 points – 2 2 2 2 3)

3rd Martin Newman (17 points – 1 3 3 5 5)

Qualifiers

Fay Watson (17 – 2 2 3 4 6)

Steve Farmer (21 – 3 4 4 5 5)

Peter Wagner (21 – 4 4 4 4 5)

Louise McSweeney (30 – 2 5 7 8 8)

Tom Phillips (35 – 4 5 8 8 10)

Imogen Fletcher (40 – 3 5 9 10 13) 

Summer Series Result 

Podium

1st Mike Blatchford (8 points – Best five finishes 1 1 2 2 2)

2nd Martin Newman (10 – 2 2 2 2 2)

3rd Malcolm Hill (11 – 1 1 2 3 4)

Qualifiers

David Mason (11 – 1 1 3 3 3)

Kim Sparkes (14 – 1 1 1 5 6)

Jake Jones (17 – 1 3 4 4 5)

Peter Wagner (18 – 2 2 4 5 5)

Peter Gregory (21 – 1 2 5 6 7)

Mark Cayzer (28 – 5 5 6 6 6)

Louise McSweeney (31 – 4 5 6 7 9)

Fay Watson (33 – 4 7 7 7 8)

Steve Framer (38 – 3 7  7 10 11)

Keith Eeles (41 – 5 6 10 10 10)

Imogen Fletcher (44 – 6 7 8 11 12)

The Peter Hazlewood Trophy – Racer of the Year 

2018

Mike Blatchford

 

Well done for all your achievements this year and we look forward to seeing you on the water again in April.

 

WS RACING – SUMMER SERIES 13 – OCT 25th

What a lucky fleet of sailors you are at WS Racing!! Another superb autumnal day….and the light breeze stayed around just long enough to enable all the entrants to complete the race. Unfortunately the wind, coming from the NE was forecast to be coming from NW, so setting the course was delayed so as to try and avoid leading the Racers into the doldrums (mainly caused when the winds blows from the North by wind shadows created by the belt of tall trees growing along the lake’s northerly bank).  (I heard that a long race was especially requested of the right person by the helm of The Red Torpedo – Errmm? Ed) . The course was eventually set as a beat / broad reach from the normal start line to Mark C, then leaving  Mark C to Port, a run down breeze to Mark A (A late replacement for Mark B that shook off its shackles to float away at 11.25 – Ed.) to be left to Port, and then a reach/beat over half the length of the lake to Mark E – so far away it could not be seen from the Race Hut – and leaving that Mark to Starboard  (Hence creating a figure of eight course! Ed) a run down to  Mark J, set just off the southerly bank of the lake at the far end of the boat park. And then  a beat/run/broad reach – depending upon the wind direction – back through the Start/Finish Line and up to Mark C again.

Although last week Fleur praised the WS Racing fleet for its vastly improved performance at the Start, that must have gone to your heads because the only boat that hit the line on the Gong and got into its stride from the off was the 2.4m Sail # 148 – aka The Red Torpedo. A few others got across the line soon  after the Start Gong sounded (Did Peter Wagner in 2.4m # 108  really think that nobody would notice his eagerness which resulted in  being 15 metres over the line? But then he did turn around and restart without being called out by the Race Controller! Ed.)  and started sailing away from the first Mark. There is no video evidence of this, but the photos below show  the result of how Peter Gregory sailed on a starboard tack pretty much straight to a point just below Mark C and then tacked onto port to be able to  round Mark C and head off to Mark A .  (As easy as that?  Not really since Peter is a brilliant sailor.  So, let’s learn from him. Ed) The wind was blowing quite briskly at this time so Peter was about 300 metres clear, close to rounding Mark A, by the time the chasing pack of the two Martins, helmed by Martin Newman and Malcolm Hill, and the two 2.4ms, helmed by Mike Blatchford and Peter Wagner, managed to round Mark C.  Although rather long distance, try to see where you are in these photos and perhaps work out what you might have done differently to get from the Start Line to Mark C. E.g. Start from the end of the Start Line closest to the first Mark?

The main struggle in this race, for most helms, was making that first Mark and once they had achieved that they could get on with the rest of the race with better positioning of their boats to make most use of the amount and direction of the available wind. Being only one lap long for everybody other than Peter Gregory who completed two laps (There is always one who has to be different! Ed)  and  because from the Race Hut we couldn’t see what was happening after the boats passed the start of the narrows, there isn’t much to report about who was doing what to whom….so here are some more photos and a list of the how the Helms finished:

Result of Summer Series Race 13

  1. Malcolm Hill (and crew Jim McEwen) – Martin #126
  2. Peter Gregory – 2.4m #148
  3. Jake Jones – 303 #6
  4. Martin Newman – Martin #125
  5. Kim Sparkes – 303 #3
  6. Peter Wagner – 2.4m #108
  7. Steve Farmer – 303 #10
  8. Mike Blatchford – 2.4m #109
  9. Jessica (and crew Douglas Haig) 303 #5
  10. Fay Watson (and crew James Thomas) 303 #8
  11. Natasha Jones – 2.3. #279
  12.  Louise McSweeney – 303 #1
  13. Keith Eeles – Liberty  #23

Rachel Ibbotts, Tom Phillips, Imogen Fletcher and Bill Garry either retired or did not finish

WS Racing – Completion of 2017 Spring Series

After 15 weeks of racing, which started on 20th April and during which period only one race was cancelled, on 1st June, the race last Thursday on 27th of July completed the Spring Series.

The Series engaged 26 WS Racers some of whom had raced in previous years but many were first timers – both to sailing as well as to racing! Some of the 26 entered just one or two races and in total across the series 152 entrants took part in 14 races. In the view of the trustees and volunteers, every single one of the 26 are winners and should be congratulated on having the desire to enjoy themselves in this challenging way.

However, to qualify for the Series and hence be included in the roll call of Results, an entrant had to race in at least five races. Some like Andy Wallace sailed in 10 races whilst others like Bill Garry managed to enter and complete five races. In total 13 WS Racers qualified for the Spring Series 2017 and the winner was calculated by counting up the aggregate score of their best five finishing positions.

The series winner  is Kim Sparkes with a score of 5, sailing single-handed in an Access 303 or a Liberty; the runner-up was Mike Blatchford with a score of 6, sailing single-handed in a Liberty or a Martin. Many congratulations to Kim and Mike and the other 11 Qualifiers. One special mention goes to Fay Watson who is congratulated especially for sailing in every race and coming seventh overall with a score of 17.

The Final result:

1. Kim Sparkes
2. Mike Blatchford
3. Peter Gregory
4. David Mason
5. Peter Wagner
6. Ann Frewer
7. Fay Watson
8. Mark Cayzer
9. Brian Mac
10. Andy Wallace
11. Steve Farmer
12. Bill Garry
13. Paul Hagan

The full details of these results can be found in the spreadsheet by clicking on the Series Overall Results tab, under the Racing tab on the WS website.

WS RACING – SPRING SERIES RESULT

Many congratulations to all those who participated in the Spring Series and many thanks to the volunteers who crewed for the racers and who helped in lots of ways to enable the races to take place.

Final Result

  1. Mike Blatchford
  2. David Mason
  3. Martin Newman
  4. Fay Watson (Fay was actually on equal points with Martin  but using the RYA guidelines Martin took 3rd place)
  5. Steve Farmer
  6. Peter Wagner (Steve & Peter were also on equal points)
  7. Louise McSweeney
  8. Tom Phillips
  9. Imogen Fletcher

In total  there  were 29 Racers who competed in the 11 Races that were run between 3rd May and today.