By Tom Hooton

With a forecast of 25-30 knots and big sea most sailors did not expect to go racing on the Sunday which effectively made this a one day event but this did not put off 17 Contenders who liked the look of Saturday's sunshine and lumps racing. They were right. It was a cracking day's sailing with 18 knots and plenty of waves.

Race 1 - The fleet got away cleanly in a fresh westerly and Simon Mussell straight away showed his immense upwind speed; winning the start at the pin and within 100 yards was able to tack and cross the fleet; great speed, wrong decision, as heading inshore was toward stronger tide. Not that it mattered as at the windward mark he was clear, followed by Gary Langdown and Nick Noble to finish in this order. Further down the fleet Tom Hooton and Ed Presley showed good speed but continually fluffed tacks and some poor boat handling saw them drop places.

Race 2 - Again got under way cleanly with Simon again showing upwind speed but dubious tactics by heading inshore again, and this time it cost him as Gary Langdown and Nick Noble came reaching in on port to lead. Simon this time managed to get ahead down the 2nd reach and was then untouchable upwind. On the last run Ed Presley managed to surf past Nick Noble to get 3rd and then Gary kindly fell over handing him 2nd at the gun and then a fluffed tack by Langdown before the finish allowed Tom Hooton through to 4th. Bad luck.

Race 3 - The rate of attrition due to the building breeze was starting to tell. By this point there were only 10 boats left out on the water. The first try at starting was a general recall which was probably a good thing as a yacht carved up the fleet. At the next start they got away quickly under a black flag, Ed Presley's race was quickly cut short as his boom broke on his first tack of the race. Simon again showed his dominance upwind to lead the race followed by an impressively fast Nick Noble fighting off Gary and then Tom.

Much curry followed this big day at sea with no-one really believing we would race on Sunday. Quite a bit of beer followed that. Good call! Sunday was rotten, Simon Mussell summed it up in his speech, "Great day yesterday, and today, thanks to Eastbourne Sovereign SC getting me home early to watch TV."

Overall Results: