A great combined weekend of training on the Saturday and the season’s first Fat Face Racing Circuit Event on the Sunday was hosted by Papercourt.

The day dawned looking grey and wet but in fact the sun even appeared in the morning before rain descended during packing up late afternoon. The wind was an eventful Force 3 with gusts of 4 and variable direction. The consequence was that, particularly in the early part of the day, there was many a capsize.

Following the intense winter training, four races were held for the 30 boat fleet. The stars on the day were also last year’s Fat Face Racing Circuit winners, Nathan and Anna Ackroyd from Norfolk Broads. They starred despite the pressure of still being able to be beaten by the local heroes Aaron Smith and Jeremy Williamson going into the final race. In fact in that last race The Ackroyds got a clear start and stretched away to a huge lead whilst Smith had to recover from 4th place at the first mark to make it back to 2nd by the finish.

Next open meetings are Whitstable on 5 and 6 May, with the back to back meetings at Emsworth and Chichester on 13 and 14 May respectively. The next training event is at Whitstable on 8 and 9 April with details on the website.

Overall Results
1st 834 Nathan and Anna Ackroyd, Norfolk Broads
2nd 20 Aaron Smith and Jeremy Williamson, PSC
3rd 22 Beckie Diamond and Fiona Hampshire, PSC
4th 1103 Alex Poyner and Holly Tucker,
5th 936 Rupert and Hugo Jones Warner Chichester
6th 1226 Ed and Will Lowes,
7th 1001 Jonathan Holmes and Hamish Ellis,
8th 845 Laura Saunders and Matthew Purdon,
9th 223 Ross Williams and James Patience,
10th 129 Kirsty Hill and Hugh Gower,,