Again the tail end of Caribbean hurricanes made their way across the Atlantic in time for the weekend and, of course, Southport 24 hour race. It’s a long time since it has been so blustery throughout the entire race, but it made for some exciting, close sailing. Bolton, having been pipped at the post last year , were out to win – they had set aside only three teams, but they took an early lead, and continued to pull ahead. Team Bass were working well, but in with a group of another five boats, and places kept swapping from time to time. There were many capsizes during the race (not helped by a rudder that was reluctant to stay down!) but the spirit kept the team going and they finished with an extremely creditable fourth. Apart from Joany Cowan tackling some guy ropes (and coming off worse) the only other tale was about Bean being scared of the dark!? (Well, he didn’t want to go back out until day break anyway!) Final results
Back at the club, the Tinkers were out in force (to match the winds?). There were various capsizes, broken shrouds, and numerous retirements, but it didn’t stop them all having a good weekend. Overall winner was again David Warren, with Ray Young 2nd, and Malcolm and Elaine Ellwood 3rd (1st 2up)
Due to the weather and Southport 24hr race, club racers were thin on the ground. Saturday started with mild panic when the Bates was not on its mooring, only to find it had gone wandering down towards the Derwent. As for racing, Ian Macpherson and Rhonwen Bryce were competing against each other in lasers until Rhonwen decided Ian was far enough ahead and abandoned racing for the rest of the day! On Sunday Ian opted to crew for William Carruthers in the RS400, against Mike Fairlamb and Eric Smith, and Leila Cook and Sue Watson in GPs. Despite pulling away from the GPs on the exciting offwind legs, on handicap, Mike Fairlamb came out on top in each race and won the series.
FLEET CHALLENGE C
PN Boat Helm Class 1 2 3 4 Pts
1 13327 M FAIRLAMB GP DNS DNS 1 1 2
2 937 W CARRUTHERS RS400 DNS DNS 2 2 4
3 167828 I MACPHERSON LAS 1 DNS DNS DNS 7
4 125514 R BRYCE LAS 2 DNS DNS DNS 8
5 913326 L COOK GP DNS DNS RTD DNS 10
Points for RTD = 3 0 4 3
Points for DSQ = 3 0 4 3
Points for DNS = 6
2 races to count