2016 Helm of the Year
2016 November Laying Up Supper & Prize giving
The 2016 November Laying Up Supper was a superb evening at Seasalter. This year we thought we would try something different so arranged a Fish and Chip supper for club members. This turned out to be a great success as 50+ sailors and their families attended. Our meals were supplied by the Gaslight Fish Bar in Faversham, who provided excellent hot food, the timing was perfect with plenty for everyone. The club’s army of loyal volunteers provided a selection of puddings too, thank you to all those who helped make this an evening to remember. The bar was busy, thanks to Johnny B for keeping our members supplied with beer!
Our 2016 Rear Commodore Sailing, Mark H started the “official proceedings”!? of the evening with a very witty summary of events throughout the season. Here is a short excerpt from his speech:
So let’s quickly re-cap on the lovely stuff that happened in 2016:
The season kicked off early for Kevin, Dave, Paul and I when we sailed round the outside of Sheppey, up the Medway and locked into Gillingham marina. This was a terrific day of high winds and high adrenaline. Thanks to Kevin for arranging this.
Kevin and Dave featured in a lot of photos this year either standing behind a table full of silverware or capsized. They quickly mastered and then perfected the skill of big cat racing as they campaigned around the country, culminating in taking first place at the Tornado Nationals at Stokes Bay.
Late May saw the usual rag tag of 15 sailors turn up for the Seasalter 15 TT, the conditions never fail to deliver at out TT’s and this year was no different. A great time was had by all.
Seasalter was represented for the first time in recent history in the ambitious Nore Race which starts and finishes at the Southend Pier head. Kevin and Dave finished a creditable second, the Seasalter Hurricane sailors were just glad to reach shore alive.
Caroline and Rob organised a great energetic camping week, which was all about the kids, this was a huge success which I sincerely hope can be repeated this year. Let’s hope Sarah can remember to teach Leon how to go about before she launches him alone towards Holland next year. Our thanks go to all the big people who helped out over the week.
We managed to strengthen our links with Tankerton and Whitstable this summer by competing in the Whitstable Regatta, this involved sailing to Tankerton and setting up camp on their vast balcony where we proceeded to drink them dry. We still managed a couple of boats in the top four finishers when we finally did get to race on the Sunday.
September saw the Forts race and five Seasalter boats entered and had a great blast out to the forts, if you stand at the bar long enough you will hear various boasts about who sailed the fastest leg etc, but needless to say the Tornado twins featured well up the top of the score sheet. Congratulations to Kevin and Dave, Ian Mills and Jane Bainbridge, John B and Paul Shields, Paul Carter and Sasha and Matt Oakley and Jo Jones for competing and completing the race.
Great to see the newer members of Seasalter getting stuck in, a huge welcome along to David Cramphorn and family, Chris Gilbert and Jax and Sally and Duncan Campbell.
Of course all the while this is going on, the regular sailing events are cracking on at Seasalter and that brings us nicely to this year’s trophy awards.”
Trophies were awarded by John H, Mark H and Steve W for 16 series of races, each having slow and fast handicap winners. There were several who stood out in each fleet, Kevin D and Dave O, Tornado sailors had a table groaning under the weight of silverware by the end of the evening! On the dinghy side, Jason M, Steve & Julie L and David C were busy collecting trophies for exceptional sailing too!
At Seasalter the Discretionary awards are always the height of excitement for the audience at the end of the evening. Not all the trophies are awarded just for serious sailing effort, other factors influence the judges’ choice of winner. This year the winners were:
Volunteer award: Caroline P and Rob S, for organising a whole week of fun, sailing and BBQs in the summer holidays for members and their children during club’s camping week.
Novice Cup: Sue B. New to dinghy sailing at Seasalter and has made outstanding progress in a year, tackling any weather.
Junior Cup: Leon. Has taken an active part in sailing throughout the year with his parents, winning several races as crew in very variable weather conditions, not put off at all by capsizing more than once!
Lady Hem Cup: Joan W. A keen sailor, fond of northerly winds and choppy seas.
Duck Award: Steve and Julie L earned this beautiful trophy, a plastic decoy duck mounted on a wooden plinth for trying exceptionally hard to launch their boat at the beginning of a race without both actually being on board! Not for want of trying, each boarded (not very elegantly) then jumped ship, Steve even chose head first over the bow! (Why? How?)
Legends Award: Jason M. A keen competitive sailor, who follows series results closely throughout the year, knew that he was in with a chance of winning the Frostbite Trophy with the final races on 6 November. With NW F6 and choppy seas he battled against Steve and Julie, beating them by only 24 seconds in the first race. The second race, we assumed that he obviously thought he needed more of a challenge so he performed at least 6 capsizes. Sadly he misjudged his antics as he finished 3 seconds behind Steve and Julie this time! Congratulations however on winning the series trophy anyway!
Most Improved Helm: Henry C. A significant award, Henry was chosen as a very worthy winner for his outstanding efforts during his first competitive year sailing a Mirror and a Topper dinghy, winning several races and highly placed in several others. He also crewed in challenging conditions for the club Fowley Island race on a Sprint 15 catamaran.
Crew of the Year: Julie L. Her valiant efforts as loyal crew to Steve earned her this trophy. Winner of many races in challenging conditions Julie has set the bar high for others, sailing regularly whatever the weather.
Helm of the Year: David J C. The most coveted award of all at Seasalter, this year David sailed the best we have ever seen him, winning so many races he thoroughly deserved to win the Helm of the Year trophy. Also taken into account was his unconditional support and loyalty to the club by volunteering his time and effort in so many ways, on and off the water. Congratulations from everyone.
J + M
