Stormy Weather Sees Club Boat Flipped On Local Beach
After a stormy night in Sutton, members of Sutton Dinghy Club raced out to the beach after the club’s prized boat was tossed onto the beach by the elements.
Speaking to JustLocal, club member Andy Johnston explained that the bad weather from Saturday night caused the boat to drift off its mooring. He said: “Last night there was a lot of wind, a lot of rain, big storm last night. So at about 8:30am this morning I got a call from one of the locals out walking who noticed our boat was drifting off it’s mooring.
“By the time we can down the tide had gone out and the boat was on the beach, so the conditions were bad last night and they’re likely to be again. So we just got a group of volunteers down to try and get the boat back floating,” said Andy.
He explained the volunteers had to put down floats to prevent further damage to the boat, as it was stuck on a rocky area of the beach. He said: “We’ll put some ribs down later on, and when it starts to float we hope to pull it back out into the clear water and get it back on a mooring or we’ll put on the beach next to the club so we’ll be able to have a look at it.”
According to Andy, the boat is a necessity to the club as it is used to start and finishes races that the club organises. He said: “It’s not in itself a racing boat, it’s our committee boat and we use it for race management.”
He explained that the boat is moored during the sailing season in the creek, and due to the tides and the constant weight of the boat on the ropes or shackles can get loose or break.
In terms of the damage to the boat he said “We’re not sure exactly until we get out into the water. The concern we have is there’s a lot of rocks around it, left to its own devices to get off them, it would bump against them and get damaged,”
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