Sunday 8th June saw close to perfect conditions for the 2014 Club Championship, incorporating Juniors, Masters and Veterans classifications. Admittedly, the wind was a little patchy and swinging wildly, but the strength averaged out at sitting out comfortably, the sun was shining and it was warm, which generally brings more people out to sail. This seemed to catch out our Race Officer, John Smith, particularly as there was just the single start for the adults. The start line for the first race probably looked okay before any boats arrived, but once we were all there it was distinctly short. There followed a rather inevitable general recall and a bit of a wait while the rescue boat found the outer distance mark and set a line at least three times as long as the original!
We got away cleanly at the second time of asking, with John saying there were about three boats only millimetres from the line, which is as it should be for a championship. The wind was swinging right as we went up the beat towards 7, and most of the fleet stayed on starboard for an extremely long time. Those of us on the port end thought we would end up buried, and 3/4 of the way up did look a doomed compared to those on the right, but as we got close to the lay line the wind backed and filled in from the left side. Peter Curtis (RS300) and John Oldham (Phantom), who had held out on the port side to the bitter end, came out well, with Clare James and Lucy in their RS200 well up there. Mark Ampleford in his Solo also had a very good beat and was leading a very competitive Solo contingent and ahead of many nominally faster boats. The shifting wind meant that the long run was usually a bit biased, which was a benefit to the asymmetrics as they didn't have to sail much further than the rest with the kite up. CJ and Uta, guesting in an RS400, made good use of this and came through the fleet to get on Peter's tail, although they never quite got past. The majority of the fleet did three laps, with the juniors who started two minutes after the main pack doing two. The patchy aspect of the wind helped the early finishers, as the wind died on the last run for the majority of the fleet. Peter came out first on handicap, with Clare second, Nancy Scott in a Topper third and Mark Ampleford tied fourth on handicap with Rob Pettit (Mark was a second ahead on the water, but they were within one corrected second on handicap).
A quick turnaround and we were out for the second race. This time the shifts were even bigger and the gusts a little stronger. With a long start line it is obviously important to be at the favoured end, and with about a minute to go it was definitely starboard biased. However, with 30s to go it was suddenly very port and a number were frantically beating along the line to get there. At the gun it was very difficult to cross the line on starboard and the fleet tacked onto port almost as one. Playing the shifts up the beat Peter came out with a good lead, with Mark Ampleford and John Oldham second and third. Mike Storey, in his EPS, was much better placed this time than in race 1. What of Gareth, I hear you ask? He suffered some form of chronometer disorder and at the start thought there was still a minute left to go. Being second or third rank in a big fleet start leaves a lot of catching to do, and our reasonably short races asked too much. With some quite hefty gusts in this race Peter, John and Mike pulled out a long lead, far enough from the rest of the fleet to be given a fourth lap, while the others did three. Unfortunately, the wind then repeated its antics from the first race and died somewhat half way round, handing the advantage to the earlier finishers again. Mark Ampleford took the honours this time, with Paul Playle (Solo) second, Paul Wright-Anderson (Laser) third, Gareth recovering to 4th and Peter Curtis 5th. This gave the overall series to Mark, with Peter second.
In the classifications Peter overcame his handicap disadvantage to take the Veterans championship on tiebreak from Gareth, and Gareth first in the 60 and over, Tony Butler first in the 70 and over and Merv first in the 80 and over (we didn't make him do the second race). Paul Playle won the Masters and Nancy Scott won the Juniors. Congratulations to all. There were an unusual number of handicap dead heats and series tiebreaks in the final results.
Concurrent with the Club Championship racing, Mike Jones and Colin Bristow ran a very competitive series of short races for the less experienced racers from the Junior Sailing School in which there was much place changing between races, except at the front where Maisie Bristow took a clean sweep of wins to take home the chocolate.
The event finished off with the usual excellent barbecue in the sunshine thanks to Stuart, Susan, Uta, Jamie and assorted helpers.
Peter Curtis (and Mike Storey)
Overall Points | ||||||||
Helm | Class | Sail No | Handicap | Category | Race 1 | Race 2 | overall points | Place |
Mark Ampleford | Solo | 5500 | 1146 | None | 4.5 | 1 | 5.5 | 1 |
Peter Curtis | RS300 | 539 | 990 | Veteran | 1 | 5 | 6 | 2 |
Clare James | RS200 | 1409 | 1051 | None | 2 | 7.5 | 9.5 | 3 |
Paul Playle | Solo | 5466 | 1146 | Master | 8 | 2 | 10 | 4 |
Gareth Griffiths | Solo | 5215 | 1146 | Veteran | 6 | 4 | 10 | 5 |
Paul Wright-Anderson | Laser | 170487 | 1088 | Master | 11 | 3 | 14 | 6 |
Nancy Scott | Topper | 46623 | 1322 | Junior | 3 | 12 | 15 | 7 |
Mike Curtis | Laser | 169278 | 1088 | Master | 10 | 6 | 16 | 8 |
John Oldham | Phantom | 1386 | 1002 | Master | 7 | 10 | 17 | 9 |
Mike Storey | Laser EPS | 114 | 1024 | Veteran | 15.5 | 7.5 | 23 | 10 |
Dave Simpson | Laser | 184318 | 1088 | Veteran | 13 | 11 | 24 | 11 |
John Magrath | Laser | 168115 | 1088 | Veteran | 12 | 13 | 25 | 12 |
Tony Butler | Laser | 180441 | 1088 | Veteran | 21 | 9 | 30 | 13 |
Kevin Seebaluck | Laser | 1 | 1088 | None | 17 | 14 | 31 | 14 |
Alex Storey | Laser Radial | 130417 | 1122 | Junior | 18 | 17 | 35 | 15 |
Ben Sharp | Laser Radial | 5892 | 1122 | Veteran | 15.5 | 20 | 35.5 | 16 |
Anna/Tallulah | Feva | 3357 | 1222 | Junior | 14 | 22 | 36 | 17 |
Rob Pettit | Solo | 5000 | 1146 | Veteran | 4.5 | 33 | 37.5 | 18 |
Ellie Wall | Topper | 44375 | 1322 | Junior | 24 | 16 | 40 | 19 |
Chris Biscomb | Solo | 3270 | 1146 | Veteran | 22 | 18 | 40 | 20 |
CJ | RS400 | 845 | 946 | Master | 9 | 33 | 42 | 21 |
Ian Peace | Solo | 4193 | 1146 | Master | 23 | 19 | 42 | 22 |
Roy Poole | Merlin-Rocket 895-3429 | 3241 | 1030 | Veteran | 29 | 15 | 44 | 23 |
Mark Phillips | Laser | 112025 | 1088 | Veteran | 25 | 23 | 48 | 24 |
Andy Collison | Laser | 195226 | 1088 | Veteran | 27 | 24 | 51 | 25 |
Peter Cottrell | Solo | 4073 | 1146 | Veteran | 19 | 33 | 52 | 26 |
Merv Cinnamond | Solo | 3457 | 1146 | Veteran | 20 | 33 | 53 | 27 |
Peter Cruise | Solo | 5046 | 1146 | Veteran | 33 | 21 | 54 | 28 |
Kiyo Wong | Topper | 45055 | 1322 | Junior | 26 | 33 | 59 | 29 |
Tony Sproat | Solo | 1193 | 1146 | Veteran | 28 | 33 | 61 | 30 |
Ella Valentine | Topper | 45106 | 1322 | Junior | 30 | 33 | 63 | 31 |
Elinor O'Leary | Topper | 15881 | 1322 | Junior | 33 | 33 | 66 | 32 |
Veterans | ||||||||
Helm | Class | Sail No | Handicap | Category | R1 | R2 | overall points | Place |
Peter Curtis | RS300 | 539 | 990 | Veteran | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
Gareth Griffiths | Solo | 5215 | 1146 | Veteran | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
John Magrath | Laser | 168115 | 1088 | Veteran | 4 | 4 | 8 | 3 |
Tony Butler | Laser | 180441 | 1088 | Veteran | 7 | 2 | 9 | 4 |
Dave Simpson | Laser | 184318 | 1088 | Veteran | 8 | 6 | 14 | 5 |
Mike Storey | Laser EPS | 114 | 1024 | Veteran | 11 | 5 | 16 | 6 |
Chris Biscomb | Solo | 3270 | 1146 | Veteran | 9 | 8 | 17 | 7 |
Rob Pettit | Solo | 5000 | 1146 | Veteran | 2 | 17 | 19 | 8 |
Ben Sharp | Laser Radial | 5892 | 1122 | Veteran | 10 | 10 | 20 | 9 |
Merv Cinnamond | Solo | 3457 | 1146 | Veteran | 5 | 17 | 22 | 10 |
Roy Poole | Merlin-Rocket 895-3429 | 3241 | 1030 | Veteran | 15 | 7 | 22 | 11 |
Peter Cottrell | Solo | 4073 | 1146 | Veteran | 6 | 17 | 23 | 12 |
Mark Phillips | Laser | 112025 | 1088 | Veteran | 13 | 11 | 24 | 13 |
Andy Collison | Laser | 195226 | 1088 | Veteran | 12 | 12 | 24 | 14 |
Peter Cruise | Solo | 5046 | 1146 | Veteran | 17 | 9 | 26 | 15 |
Tony Sproat | Solo | 1193 | 1146 | Veteran | 14 | 17 | 31 | 16 |
Masters | ||||||||
Helm | Class | Sail No | Handicap | Category | R1 | R2 | overall points | Place |
Paul Playle | Solo | 5466 | 1146 | Master | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
John Oldham | Phantom | 1386 | 1002 | Master | 1 | 4 | 5 | 2 |
Paul Wright-Anderson | Laser | 170487 | 1088 | Master | 5 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
Mike Curtis | Laser | 169278 | 1088 | Master | 4 | 3 | 7 | 4 |
CJ | RS400 | 845 | 946 | Master | 3 | 7 | 10 | 5 |
Ian Peace | Solo | 4193 | 1146 | Master | 6 | 5 | 11 | 6 |
Junior | ||||||||
Helm | Class | Sail No | Handicap | Category | R1 | R2 | overall points | Place |
Nancy Scott | Topper | 46623 | 1322 | Junior | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
Anna/Tallulah | Feva | 3357 | 1222 | Junior | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 |
Ellie Wall | Topper | 44375 | 1322 | Junior | 4 | 2 | 6 | 3 |
Alex Storey | Laser Radial | 130417 | 1122 | Junior | 3 | 3 | 6 | 4 |
Kiyo Wong | Topper | 45055 | 1322 | Junior | 5 | 8 | 13 | 5 |
Ella Valentine | Topper | 45106 | 1322 | Junior | 6 | 8 | 14 | 6 |
Elinor O'Leary | Topper | 15881 | 1322 | Junior | 8 | 8 | 16 | 7 |