Saundersfoot Sailing Club Fun Events : Summer Series
Sunday 12th - Tuesday 14th August 2007

Go-Karting Report by Bob Carter, Karting Pictures by Bob and George Carter. Picture 1 is the Start of the Final with winner Kevin in the number 9 Kart. More pictures from the Fun Events are in the Photo Archive

The annual Go-Kart Competition was staged on Tuesday 14 August at the Heatherton Activity Park just a few miles from Saundersfoot. They would not close the track until 6pm so we booked it for 2 hours (6-8) just hours before the championship races commenced the next day. Now the go-karting has become a really serious competition in our fleet and people take it almost as seriously as the sailing. This year was even more so with 23 entrants. Shanklin have won it the last 2 years and they turned up in force and this year Stuart Pierce thought he would show the (3) Shanklin youths (Charlie, Alex & William) how it really should be done, being an experienced tractor driver and all. Team Draycote turned up in force and we had 3 members from each of the James (Derek, Nicola & Melony) and the Tuite Dalton (Ed, Harriot & William) families taking part making them the biggest club team. There were also high calibre teams from Carsington (Ray Gall, Norman Grum, Robin Newbold), Seasalter (Kevin Dutch, Martin Searle, Ben Saunders), Grafham (Steve Petts, Christine Petts, George Carter), Thorpe Bay (Gerald Sverdloff, Martyn Ellis, Elliott Fougman) and the other individual stars such as Matt Smith (Beaver),etc. A large group of spectators turned up to cheer on the teams.

The Heatherton staff set up a huge Grand Prix matix of 28 heats in which after a few laps practice each competitor raced against every other competitor in a different go-kart and starting from a different position on the grid. The heats were too many to report on in detail. Some of the more entertaining moments were provided when one particular kart took its rider through the bank of tyres and up the mud bank at the hairpin bend – one of the drivers explained that the kart was prone to the throttle sticking on full power. Another came when Stuart Pierce spun and subsequently, to the horror of the others racing, progressed to continue the wrong way around the race track.

Much to the delight of the spectators (?) it got dark, it rained, it got cold, 8pm came and went but the competitors were having a whale of a time – even though there were no wet weather tyres and the delinquent kart kept coating the track in mud from the bank. By about 8.30 the heats were over. The stars of the heats were Gerald Sverdloff (37), Charlie Pierce and Matt Smith (both 34), Norman Grum and Elliott Fougman (both 29) and Martyn Ellis, Robin Newbold and George Carter (each 28). Most good drivers had a bad result or 2 to count caused by the bad kart or the difficulty in passing on this very tight track.

Anyway with the heats over we moved on to the quarter-finals which reduced the competitors to the last 10. It was at this point they warmed up another cart and turned them all around – to the amusement of the spectators. The semi-finals were raced in 5 carts going round the track the other way. This reduced the competitors down to the four finalists. In the final they went back to the normal way round. It looked like Matt Smith (driver #7) was going to win as he led for much of the race but finally Kevin Dutch (driver #9) squeezed by to take the title and to leave Matt as the runner up. Martyn Ellis took third and William Baker (the winner 2 years ago) was fourth. The proceedings finished nearly an hour late in the dark and the drizzle at 8.55pm but no one minded too much and everyone agreed that it was great fun and fantastic value. Next year maybe our fleet racing driver, Jerry Hampshire, will join us and see if he can show us the way it should be done!

Final Standings: 1st Kevin Dutch (Seasalter), 2nd Matt Smith (Beaver) 3rd Martyn Ellis (Thorpe Bay) 4th William Baker (Shanklin)

Beaten Semi-finalists: Stuart Pierce, Nicola James, Norman Grum, Charlie Pierce, Gerald Sverdloff, Robin Newbold

Monday 13th: Trip To Caldey Island, Report by Martin Searle

On the morning of Monday 13th the assembled fun events fleet were attempting to exit the boat park without getting their rig entangled in the trees when I arrived with Kevin and Ben, the rest of the Seasalter crowd. After watching the shenanigans for a little while and working out what to do, pull halyard over to the starboard side and go up the bank, I duly put the bits onto the boat and exited the boat park without trouble. The next obstacle in getting to the beach was the slipway, it was overhanged by a few trees which only allowed the passage of a boat with mast up by weaving it this way and that to go under some specific points in the branches! All part of the fun!

So we managed to arrive at the beach, I rigged the sail and put the rudders on. After a briefing by Nick in which I heard the term 'Race' being used but me I was cruising and the rescue guys we launched and prepared to set off. Whilst we were waiting for everyone to get afloat Ben Saunders from Seasalter managed to break his connector bar, it was looking a little disconnected in the middle (either end moved independantly) the previous night and it finally gave up the ghost,he returned to shore without incident on 1 rudder and that ended Ben's cruise there and then.

We set off en-mass down the coast heading for Tenby a few miles distant and after a short if windy sail we arrived on the South Beach, having learnt about the Wind eddies near the cliffs, they are really weird you can be sailing in no wind one minute and the next its a run and then its a beat! After a short break at the beach for the distribution of Mars bars to the 'winners' and to pretty much everyone else (thanks Nick!) we set off for the 'Race' to Caldey.

Caldey lies a couple miles off shore from Tenby and this was a great sail in flat water with a good breeze. The passage took about 20minutes or so. After arriving at the beach we needed to lift the boats up the beach a good distance to prevent them floating off whilst we were having lunch in the Abbey grounds a few members of the party toured the Abbey, Me? since it was my 6th or 7th visit to the Island just concentrated on Lunch. Thanks go to the Abbott of Caldey Island Monastry for allowing us to land on the Island.

So for the 'race' back to Saundersfoot it was a run all the way to the headland at Monkton, the start was set off the island and I started in my customary last position since I was still cruising ;-). There was a gate near the fortress at Tenby to pass through and many cut in way too close to the cliffs whilst I stayed out much further and dipped through the gate, I was about 8th of 15 or so on the water (I wasn't counting that much). By staying out away from the cliffs I got much cleaner wind and managed to keep moving. Kevin Dutch had also done the same and was in the 'lead'. By the time we reached the headland I was just behind Nick D. in about 6th place and by staying Mid channel on the approach to Saundersfoot had comfortably overtaken him by the time I reached the shore, George Carter 'won' followed by Kevin a few seconds later. Pity I couldn't replicate that during the main races themselves!

It was a nice pleasant cruise in good weather, the Picture, by Martin Searle, shows the fleet at Caldey Island (more in the photo archive). Ben Saunders was given a replacement connector bar by Elliot Faugman to allow Ben to sail the main nationals races so thanks to Elliot.