The Flying Fifteen Open, part of the Waples Wine travellers series, and the GP Open, part of the Northern Bell, are taking place this weekend. The first race on Saturday was scheduled for 1300hrs but blustery winds were forecast to ease so proceedings were delayed an hour, by which time there was a lot more enthusiasm to give it a go!
The wind did ease but there were still squalls that would catch sailors out from time to time. Our own AJ was one of them, capsizing just before the start on the start line, getting stuck in the mud, eventually getting free and continuing his merry way only to capsize on the finish line after the 2nd race!
It was the GP fleet that suffered the most from the squalls which flattened three boats at the start of the first reach which shook up the positions. Andy/Ginger Phil took the honours in the first race from Dave/Lynn, who won the 2nd race and take overnight lead.
In the F15s, Simon/Jon took an early lead but it was Andy McKee that would survive the longer races to finish the day with two wins. For consistency Steve Goacher took two 2nds, and Simon two 3rds.
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For the evening entertainment, and the Flying Fifteen sailors in particular, Steve Goacher will be providing some valuable input on “sniffing out the wind” (perhaps ‘snuffing out the wind’ might be more appropriate after todays weather!) and Phil Evans will give an insight into spinnaker handling.
After a very wet night for campers, winds eased a little as forecast for Sunday. There was still some great racing, close reaches, and a few broaches to challenge sailors, but most sailors raced all three races to the bitter end.
Not sure why, but the first race had two protest flags, and a 720 pirouette, in the F15 fleet. Apart from that, all 10 starts were clear, no known boat damage, so a good time was had by all.
Andy McKee and Rich Jones from Dovestone won the F15 trophy with 4 pts while Andy Smith and Flaming Ginger Phil won the GP trophy with 5 pts
Prizes were awarded by Commodore’s wife Kirstie Somerville.
