Glorious sunshine, temperatures in the high 70s and a steady Force 2-3 north-easterly attracted an excellent entry of 51 boats for Wilsonian Sailing Club’s Grand Prix open meeting on Sunday 10 July. Craftinsure sponsored the event and for a change prizes were awarded to the overall winner and first boat in each category.

A long course was set with visits to numerous Medway Creeks, including Hoo, Otterham, Bartlett and South Yantlet. After a laborious beat down river against the flood tide, the competitors were rewarded on the homeward trek with some superb spinnaker reaches, with the fast boats taking under two hours to complete the course whereas the slow boats took over three hours.

Richard Smith sailed his RS700 to perfection to claim overall winner’s prize and lift the Philip Holmes Memorial Trophy, while Mark Goodchild (International Canoe) was second on corrected time and first single-handed boat without trapeze. Sam Proctor teamed up with Ian Parris in his RS800 and this proved to be a successful combination. They took line honours and third place on handicap, just five seconds adrift of Goodchild, and awarded the prize for first two-person trapeze boat with asymmetrical spinnaker.

Brian Lamb/Brian Warwick (Wayfarer) had a brilliant start and was left unchallenged by the other five Wayfarers to secure the prize for first two-person sitting out boat with symmetric spinnaker. Grahame Smith won the contest with the six Laser Vortex by a clear margin and the prize for first singlehanded boat with trapeze and asymmetric spinnaker. Ian Foxwell (Blaze) picked up the prize for first singlehanded sitting-out boat without trapeze, while Tim Kift/Martin Jones (Osprey) was awarded the prize for first two-man boat with trapeze and symmetric spinnaker. Dave Vettergreen/Stan Sprot (Laser 2000) and Andy Hockey/Bryony Sharpen (Enterprise) received prizes for first two-person boat with asymmetric spinnaker and first two-person boat without spinnaker respectively.