K1 End of Season Open at Broxbourne Sailing Club

Broxbourne K1 Open © Siobhan Laming

Broxbourne K1 Open © Siobhan Laming

Despite Auntie Beebs proliferation of amber weather warnings, six keen visiting K1 owners splashed their way through the highways and byways to Broxbourne to take up the challenge for this last event in the 2019 K1 travellers trophy series last Saturday.

But first things first, there was a rugby match to watch, so an opportunity to sit down with a complimentary bacon roll and a hot cuppa and shoot the breeze with friends from the circuit. It turned out to be a perfect start to the day.

Full time at the rugby saw a short briefing and the fleet launched with a mixture of delight at the result, moderated with some relief, and were ready to start racing at 11-15 hrs. The conditions had changed slightly from the forecast, at least the constant rain had stopped, despite grey skies, the wind, a shifty southerly had dropped to a mean 15/16kts, with prominent and regular shifting gusts of 25kts.

The excellent race team set a course including two windward legs at slightly variant angles so that in the shifty conditions the breeze was 'on the nose' most of the time. Although the gusts would prove challenging up wind, if you caught them right off wind, it was easy to pick up 50/60 metres on a screaming plane.

The first race established the trend for the day, Ian Duke from Datchet Water set off with a lead he never relinquished. Behind him Hilly King, Angelo Russo and David Hume were swapping places around the course. Hume benefited from a substantial lift on the penultimate beat and then enjoyed a rush down wind, taking some distance out of Ian Duke, but Ian was always in control and took the win.

After a pleasant lunch in the club room the fleet launched for two races. Ian Duke set off again, initially he was in the close company of his club mate Mike Beckett. David Hume was leading the rest of the fleet in a vain chase of these two. Mike Beckett missed his straps on the next windward leg and left his boat. He was quickly back aboard and in action, but David had closed and used his local knowledge to slip by to another second place on the last lap.

Ian Duke took the final race of the day and was followed home by Hilly King and the ever resilient Angelo Russo.

Overall Results:

Broxbourne End of Season Trophy 2019
1st Ian Duke (Datchet Water Sailing Club)
2nd David Hume (Broxbourne Sailing Club)
3rd Hilly King (Frensham Pond)

K1 2019 Travellers Trophy
1st Geoff King (Tewkesbury Sailing Club)