This year saw the 40ᵗʰ Anniversary of the Paxton Lakes Sailing Club's Annual 24 hour marathon race in aid of the
RNLI. The race was started back in the early days of Wyboston Sailing Club, which later moved a few miles up the
road to become Paxton Lakes SC. The first event was organised by the then committee with SigneT Sailor John Pryor
taking the lead as sailing secretary. Over the years a SigneT team has been a familiar competitor. In some years
the team was really competitive and in others it was the team for children and anyone who wanted to compete that
hadn't a team, but in every year there was one main aim- to win the prize for the most money raised. In the last
two or three years, as active sailing members dwindled at Paxton, hard-core SigneT sailors defected to the Solo
team. They won and raised a lot of money but since this was the big anniversary it was felt that the SigneT team
should be revived and members were recalled.
As early as last year a call was put out to all SigneT sailors, particularly those who had competed in the past. The aim was to have fun and raise as much money for the RNLI as possible. Pat Overs and Cate Whiteside were both active in helping organise and prepare for the day as members of the Paxton Committee being especially involved in weed clearing, catering and raffles. They also assembled a core SigneT team comprising Pat and Mike Overs, Steve Whiteside and Lizzy and Will Davies. Sarah Adams then joined as extra crew with Steve Leeding and Mark Cowling available for part of the event. Then came the old timers: John Pratt, Chris Whiteside, John and Maggie Pryor and Jenny Overs also all took to the water for at least one hour each as did novice sailors Carlene and Regan in true SigneT tradition.
The weather was perfect, fine and bright with plenty, but not too much, wind. The team got off to a good start laying 7th after the first hour, briefly moving up into 6th place, before settling for 7th into the evening. As the sun went down we dipped to 9th place when putting out ST2 with her red cut down main to sail into the sunset and allow older members of the fleet under the boom more easily. In the early hours of the morning we then regained 8th place, maintaining that position until the end. We were pleased with this in a competitive fleet of 15 boats from six different clubs. One small moment of excitement came when Chris Whiteside and Will Davies took a brief swim mid-morning, just to wake themselves up perhaps. Other SigneT sailors in the event were Jonny Leeding in the Paxton Lark team, 10th and Hannah Whiteside in the Paxton Junior team 12th.
On the bank there was much fun with a hog roast, disco into the night and much merriment, sunbathing and good company on the bank around the SigneT encampment. More importantly our fundraising total to date stands at £642.63. Thank you to all the SigneT sailors who have supported us in this event this year and previously. Further donations can still be made at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/PLSC24hour-SigneT
Jenny Overs
July 2010
Last Modified: