J B Smith Trophy 2022

In very gusty and challenging conditions requiring two safety boats , five GPs and 4 UCLA/Lasers took part in the annual JB Smith trophy. Of the 9 boats that took part, 5 managed to survive the two hour battering – well done to them !

There were numerous capsizes and Lesley Freeman thankfully recovered from a bang on the head from the boom which spilled her into the water and left Nick Harrison to bring the boat into the jetty while Lesley swam to the rocks which were fortunately not far away. She attended the evening’s presentation sporting a sizeable bump on the head !

Congratulations to all boats that took part in very hairy conditions and well done to Dave Beechey and Ian Patterson who won both the Main and Handicap race for the GP14s and to Andy Allan who took Main and Handicap for the ICLA/Laser boats.

In second place for the GPs was Simon Fletcher and crew John Cookson with Keith Budden and Ben Roberts taking third place.

For the ICLA/Laser class Andy Allan and Andy Blakeway were the only finishers. A creditable attempt by Andy B despite an early capsize.

Thanks to Craig Chadderton for abandoning his sail to man the second safety boat when things turned manic.