Club News
Last Updated 17 February 2008
2008 Open Events at Eastbourne
The following open events have been confirmed for 2008 -
2 March - IOM Met & Southern Championship Race 2
13 April - RA PRACC
25 May - Laser TT
13 July - IOM Vancouver Cup
2 November - IOM Guy Fawkes Trophy
16 November - Laser TT & Association AGM
2007 RA Nationals
Over the weekend of 16 and 17th June, Eastbourne was proud to be host of the 2007 RA Nationals.
A total of 25 competitors registered for the event, and racing kicked off at around 9.30am on the Saturday.
Weather on the Saturday was clear skies, accompanied by unexpected showers with a gusty wind blowing almost along the entire length of the lake. The wind direction allowed a course to be set utilising the whole lake, creating a challenging beat that really gave the opportunity for the A boats to get up some speed.
In the gusty conditions many boats surfed their way downwind in spectacular fashion.
Race officer, John Henderson, managed to get the fleet through 9 races by the end of Saturday, a staggering 27 heats !
Overnight the lead was shared between Derek Priestly, 9 times National winner, and the clubs own Commodore, Ken Binks, with Peter Wiles a very close third.
Sunday dawned to much lighter winds and clear skies, creating fluky conditions that took several hours to settle, but once again allowing a course to be set using the whole length of the lake.
Throughout the final day the regatta lead changed hands a number of times, with no more than 2 points separating the top 3 until late into the afternoon.
A strong finish by Derek Priestly, gave him command going into the last race (Race 16), but with Ken and Peter just 2 and 3 points behind the title was still anybody's going into the last race.
Peter and Ken had to win and Derek had to finish 4th or better. It was a very exciting and tense finish to an excellent weekends racing.
Peter Wiles led the last race from start to finish, but Derek managed to hold on to Ken round the course to win his 10th RA National title.
All of us at Eastbourne would like to thank the many competitors for a great weekend, and the Eastbourne Club Committee would like to thank the many club members who worked so hard to make the event a success.
Prizes were awarded by the new Mayoress of Eastbourne at the club house following racing, and we would like to thank her and her team for taking time out to visit us.
Visit our gallery for more pictures of the event.
For full results, click here.
Directions
New directions for how to find our club have been added to the site here.
Please contact any of the committee members for more details if required.
Friends of Princes Park
As you are aware John Henderson joined the committee of the Friends of Princes Park group with the clubs interests at heart. John is currently the membership secretary and was able to inform the recent Annual General Meeting that the group had 181 members. Quite a lot has been achieved during the last 12 months, and the group has contributed about £2,000 towards the cost of replacing the entrance sign which used to adorn the Royal Parade entrance to the park.
Fund raising was achieved by several social events and the fair which was held in the park in August last year. The committee have liaised with the borough council parks and gardens department and the park ranger over quite a few matters involving the park including seating and security and our numbers do give us some clout when needed.