Record turnout beats the weather
Usually all the gear that’s required to spectate at the first event of the year is a pair of shorts and a good set of lungs. This time around a diving suit, snorkel and loudspeaker would have been more appropriate! Despite the torrential rain a record number of entrants rigged up in the puddles at Aquasports, the venue for the first T15 inter-club event in the South East zone for 2006.  Last years racing was dominated by the Hythe Hotshots. This year both the Bewl Blasters and Aquasports Aquanauts have bolstered up their squads and on the water looked to have more manpower than the travellers from Hythe; nevertheless, Hythe have been busy over the winter months.

A triangle course was set to keep things simple, a beach start for the 3.5m - 5.5m classes and a water start for the 6.8m and Techno 6.8m classes. This ensured entertainment for everyone on the beach, with a few pile ups caused by, lets say, some of the more experienced hands (not mentioning any names - of course).

The racing was actually really close throughout the day. The 3.5m fleet was fiercely competitive. Conor Wells (Aquanauts) had made it clear from the out that he wanted to win the day. But only the last race of the 4 series on the day secured him the trophy from team mate Nicholas Bone, Nicholas in his first ever competition.

Hythe Hotshots master stroke turned out to be the promotion of Stuart Hards to the 5.5m class, a space left absent by Jack Brooks now on Techno and competing outside of T15.  In his first racing on a 5.5m Stuart dominated the fleet, but not without pressure from Bewl Blasters’ Ed Burton. Ed won the last race, but Stuart had already posted three 1sts by then.  Special mention also has to go to Caroline Gittins of Bewl, whom after lunch raised her game considerably to bring in a second place, threatening the 3^rd position overall.  We also had the pleasure of seeing Glen Sullivan from Danson Park taking home a trophy in his first ever racing. Glen and Ed were also the most impressive in the Freestyle expression session.

Hythe managed to take further honours in the 4.5m class after a dependable performance from Sam Conroy, however it was Casper Jones of Bewl who has improved a great deal since last year; he even shocked himself by winning the last race ahead of the 4.5m class and the rest of the fleet!  The happiest people on the course, in my opinion, were the Katies! Both new to racing and both smiling the whole way round, it was great to see.

The Techno 6.8m fleet was won by Sam Latham, now sailing for Hythe (being a member) after sailing for Aquasports last year! A few had something to say about that. Sam has had a great start to the year putting in good performances at National Events too. The Techno 6.8m fleet was supremely competitive, with ties for the second and third places. Claudia Carney of Hythe and Rupert Munro-Faure of Bewl both managed to clock exactly the same results and discards! Rupert has shown a dramatic improvement since the start of the year and was super chuffed.

Despite the rain we still managed to squeeze in a BBQ and a lunch time freesail on all the shiny demo gear provided by Naish, North, Fanatic, F2 and Mistral, and for the first time ever the prize giving had to be held inside due to the floods, monsoons and wild torrents developing outside. 

Hythe Hotshots took the honours once again, though this time the margin was a lot smaller. Hopefully the next event at Bewl on 18 June will have an even larger turn out and the fight for the winning team position will be tighter still.

Team winners
Hythe Hotshots

Event report
Written by Clyde Waite
T15 CO (SE Zone)