Congratulations to Pete Lawson and Dennis Swain on finishing 4th in the May bank holiday weekend’s Enterprise Inland Championship at Rutland Water
What a Weekend!
Saturday started off with plenty of sunshine, but a lack of wind. Bridget was the OD and was determined to start racing on time, and made sure everyone knew that. So she and Ginge went out, set the line and everyone was getting ready for the novelty(!) of a race that was going to start on time, but even with 10 minutes to go the postponement flag went up, and that was to be it for the afternoon – a case of all dressed up and nowhere to go (or at least no wind you take you there)
Rain set in over night, and the winds picked up. By early Sunday morning the rain had disappeared, and campers were looking forward to a good force 6 southerly. However, that all changed and by 0930, there was thunder, lightning, and torrential rain! The weather front did pass through and racing started on time (or thereabouts!) with seven GPs and half a dozen handicap boats. Steve Hunt with heavy weather crew Andy Wilcox gave the others a bit of a chance by capsizing on the first beat, but before the second beat he had taken advantage of the gusting winds to break back through to the lead. As the race was shortened, the wind swung to the SW, and increased substantially – there was some flattening gusts that took out Joe and Sally Roberts, and Dave and Sarah Nicholson in their GPs. One of Saturday’s postponed races followed before lunch, this time William Carruthers and Lesley Braddock gybed for a gust of wind which took them out of the race (and they donated another burgee to Neptune).
The afternoon race took the competitors around the lake, and it tempted out some F15 sailors. Scott Beattie was in a competitive spirit and eager to get started – however, he was so early that he took several others over the line and had to return. With the SW wind, it was to be typically challenging. with gusts and lulls in the lee of Sale Fell.
Ian Campbell crewed for Mike Moore in a F15 and was treated to a bit of a dunking when the wind dropped suddenly and they heeled to windward – not that he minded too much about getting wet as he was fully kitted out in other people’s clothes! Did Scott have a jet ski fixed to his boat, or was it just the wash created by the rudder as he tried to bear away in one of the gusts?
Bill Smith with Phil Hodgkins in an RS800 struggled to cope with the variable conditions upwind, but made up for it on the 3 mile run back down the lake. Steve Hunt broke away from the rest of the fleet and fell in to the trap of believing he was ok. However, his lead was continually nibbled away until back at Scarness where William was side by side with him and F15s were catching up. Steve spotted a gust of wind, gybed and 30 seconds later was 400 yards ahead.
Robin Dawson and Toggle Cowan were getting to grips with their new RS400 – the question was asked how long the wind indicator would last? The answer was to be not even a day! They survived the first capsize without too much problem. But what was Toggle doing – front crawl? Not that easy in a wetsuit! The winds increased as the boats were back in the northern bay, and several boats were flattened by one squall. This led to Robin and Toggle’s next capsize, with mast in the mud they realised that an RS400 isn’t the easiest boat to right in such conditions.
What would Monday offer? – A queue of people offering to be OD or do rescue duty to secure a 3rd in the day’s two race series! This was because the gusting conditions and white horses created a lot of apathy, but there were some takers, and a few more (believing the wind was easing) set off from shore even as the race started. The overall strength of wind may have eased, but the gusts continued to pick off boats one by one. Perseverance, and no capsizes, by Mike Moore gave him first place on handicap. The lunch time break, with bright sunshine, helped convince several of the morning’s spectators that conditions were just right for a good blast around the bay. Little did they know that afternoon OD Ian Preston was to set a course with 64 beats in it! The Hodgkin boysfound a good way to spill wind; the first reach took out Rory Yardley, Robin and Toggle (this time practising breaststroke), Des and Martin Wright, and Sam Hall (but he continued for another couple of capsizes before retiring); Neil Currie and Phil Smith opted to capsize rather than surf on to the shore.
Just two days sailing resulted in a chipped tooth for Rhonwen, a fractured knuckle for William, and a broken mast for the Hodgkins – What more could anyone ask for?!
CDs of more pics are available, but anyone captured on the CD just need to cross my palm with silver to stop me distributing them!!
Here's the multitude of results
GP14 SPRING CUP
PN Boat Helm Class 1 2 3 4 Pts
1 13176 D LAWSON GP 1 1 DNS DNS 2
2 13839 H GODFREY GP 2 3 DNS 1 3
3 13327 M FAIRLAMB GP DNS 2 DNS 4 6
4 13655 N LEWIS GP 6 5 DNS 3 8
5 13733 A HODGKINS GP 4 4 DNS DNS 8
6 13259 J ROBERTS GP DNS DNS DNS 2 12
7 1072 R DAWSON RS400 3 DNS DNS DNS 13
8 13839 D NICHOLSON GP 5 DNS DNS DNS 15
9 13791 P SMITH GP DNS DNS DNS RTD 16
Points for RTD = 7 6 0 6
Points for DSQ = 7 6 0 6
Points for DNS = 10
2 races to count
ALBERT BATES RETIREMENT TROPHY
PN Boat Helm Class 1 Pts
1 13839 H GODFREY GP 1 1
2 3673 S BEATTIE FF 2 2
3 3473 M MOORE FF 3 3
4 1210 S HUNT RS400 4 4
5 167828 I MACPHERSON LAS 5 5
6 2324 R BLACKBURN LARK 6 6
7 937 W CARRUTHERS RS400 7 7
8 130338 RiCRITCHLEY LAS 8 8
9 13655 N LEWIS GP 9 9
10 1072 R DAWSON RS400 10 10
11 809 B SMITH RS800 11 11
12 93265 M TROTTER FF 12 12
12 1117 K JAMIESON FF 12 12
14 13259 J ROBERTS GP 13 13
15 13327 M FAIRLAMB GP 14 14
16 13839 D NICHOLSON GP RTD 18
Points for RTD = 18
Points for DSQ = 18
Points for DNS = 17
1 races to count
PAUL CARRUTHERS MEMORIAL TROPHY
PN Boat Helm Class 1 2 Pts
1 3473 M MOORE FF 1 3 4
2 167828 I MACPHERSON LAS 2 5 7
3 13259 J ROBERTS GP 4 6 10
4 13839 H GODFREY GP 3 RTD 15
5 3673 S BEATTIE FF DNS 1 16
6 1210 S HUNT RS400 DNS 2 17
7 213142 R HODGKINS GP 6 RTD 18
8 1148 N CURRIE RS400 DNS 4 19
9 13733 A HODGKINS GP 5 DNS 20
10 813467 D WRIGHT GP RTD RTD 21
11 2324 R BLACKBURN LARK RTD DNS 24
12 40894 S HALL TOP DNS RTD 26
13 1072 R DAWSON RS400 DNS RTD 27
Points for RTD = 9 12
Points for DSQ = 9 12
Points for DNS = 14
2 races to count