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A thirteen strong French sailing team arrived. - The day started with very little wind so a small trip in our powerboats to Samphire Hoe was in order and was much appreciated by our guests. 


After refreshments - with signs of light airs with and a promise, we decided to go sailing.

The course was chosen - a beach scramble start, out to a windward mark and back though a downwind slalom to a finish line with the first 3 boats of any team across the line declared the winner… 

Scoring: 2 points a win, 0 lose, 1pt each if a draw.  Seven white and seven blue hulled Topaz boats were used.

The first race caught us by surprise the French won!!!  - We thought it best to come 2nd…

Determined not to let this happen again we told the French we had our Waterloo Pirates here which generated some worried looks!  (Waterloo Pirates are our young sailors RYA on-board sailing club.)

The 2nd race began with a strong start and John Hope shooting off the beach like a man possessed. With a little more wind all was looking good but alas the French came from nowhere to win, a very close race though…

The last race saw many unusual techniques employed by both teams to deal with the virtually non-existent wind but in the end it died completely and the race was declared a draw…  -  France 5  England 1 

Next the gift presentation - followed with an invite from the French to visit in September for a two day sail along the French coast at their annual event where they promised to beat us again…


A great day was had by all  -  The Dover Water Sports Centre would like to thank everyone for taking part.

The French departed for France and we started the BarBe…

Then a surprise - a very large warship appeared sunk down into the water and disgorged 6 Landing craft that steamed straight for our beach (perhaps someone had told them this was the best place for children and adults to learn sailing and do their powerboat level 2 courses!). 300 cyclists had landed as part of a charity stunt to help our servicemen injured in Iraq and Afganistan. 

Just when we thought it was all over, seven parachutists (The Red Devils) jumped out of a plane and needed picking out of the water! As luck would have it we were ready with seven powerboats on the water. The parachutists thanked us for getting them out so quickly as they were only wearing light clothing and commented on how cold the sea was… 



What a day !…
www.doverwatersports.com - for the best place to learn sailing and powerboating in the south east…