My first Grafham open was in 1987 as a skinny teenager crewing on a Condor for a bit of a local legend Bill Partridge, we arrived and rigged up next to two the first two prototype Hurricane 5.9s that had been built by Reg and Robert White in Brightlingsea and Bill introduced me to Reg for the first time, this was their Debut and they looked great, big powerful sails a modern hull shape subtly refined from the Tornado and with Twin Trapezes .
From Memory the first day was a bit windy and we had a swim or two and broke some bits so didn't sail the Sunday which was fine as we were able to watch these new boats absolutely flying round the course in an increasing breeze and really putting on a show until Robert did a spectacular pitch pole right in front of the watching spectators !!
Funnily enough i had only ever sailed with Bill the once until this year when i needed a crew for our clubs (Minnis Bay) 60th anniversary year race day, and so as his crew couldn't make it we teamed up again 23 years since that Grafham weekend and with Bill (who must be over 65 by now and is sailing Laser 2000s !!) at the front end of the shocker a somewhat different beast to the cat sailing he had done before we went and won the day in a fresh force 4 !!!!
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