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Please submit reports as you would like them to appear. Send by mail, either in the body of the email or as an attachment.
Dovestone Sailing Club GP14 Open - Sunday 7th May 2000 Over 20 visitors arrived at Dovestone SC for the North West Area GP 14 Travellers Open Meeting. This was the second meeting in the series and there was strong support from Hollingworth Lake, Bolton, Budworth and Burwain as well as visitors from Coombs and Glossop sailing clubs. A few of the visitors decided that the strong force 4 North Easterly blowing directly down the lake was too demanding and chose not to sail leaving 17 visitors to join the 4 home boats that took to the water. As it was, with stronger gusts and the wind building during the second race to force 5-6 meant a fair number of capsizes throughout the fleet - although the wind abated somewhat for the final race. However the generally steady wind meant exhilarating two and three sail planing conditions, especially on a long broad reach lasting almost two thirds of the length of the reservoir. The first race had a rather short line set by the OD leading to a number of pre start incidents and some individual recalls. Ian Platt (Bolton) managed to round the windward mark first and maintained that placing although was pushed hard for then entire race by Nigel Harris (Burwain). The first gybe mark saw a poor collision between local sailors Ian Jones in 4th and David McKee in 6th position leading to McKee having to retire from the race with damaged sails. A longer start line for the second race meant fewer incidents and the fleet maintained its discipline, getting away first time. Once again Ian Platt managed to lead the fleet for the entire race with the ever present Nigel Harris unable to close the gap. Paul Whitworth (Hollingworth Lake) took third and Bill Kenyon (Budworth) slipped a place to 4th. The final race saw slightly less wind but still sufficient in the gusts to allow some exciting planing. Steve Graham (Burwain), who had suffered in the previous race from a capsize, opened up a massive lead and by the second mark was almost an entire leg ahead of the rest of the fleet. His position was never threatened during the race. Paul Whitworth's form continued to improve and he took second place ahead of Mike Senior (Bolton).
The final results were: Silver Fleet winner: Chris Aubrey and Kate Livses (Bolton); Bronze Fleet Winner: Julie Wadding and Chris Waddington (Bolton and Budworth) Russ Clark Laser Centre &Scott Bader Laser Open - Bowmoor SC 25.3.2001
Sponsored by The Laser Centre & Scott Bader, Bowmoor SC hosted the first Wessex traveller of the year on 25th March. News of the fantastic prizes, over £300 worth, had obviously travelled far & wide with 53 boats on the water, this included 29 visitors from 14 different clubs, or perhaps it was the frustration of the closures due to Foot & Mouth ! The large fleet were faced with a long beat the length of the lake into a cold easterly force 2-3. Bill Busby and Harry Joyce from Bowmoor used their local knowledge to pull away from the fleet, and battled for the lead for the whole race, with Joyce leading at the finish, Julian Cooke & Duncan Whitrow from Chew Valley finishing 3rd & 4th. The second race was delayed whilst the race officer Chris Howarth changed the course to cater for the wind moving to the north, after one general recall the fleet were again led away by Bill Busby and also John Foord (last years winner) from Oxford SC , who just got to the first mark in the lead which he held for nearly the whole race but failed to cover Busby on the penultimate beat allowing Busby to take first place. Whitrow was 3rd, with Alan Davis from Oxford SC in 4th. With Joyce finishing 8th, having struggled to work his way through a very high quality fleet, Busby was now favourite for the overall win unless Foord or Joyce could win the last race. The final start again needed a general recall, Joyce making it to the first mark just in the lead from Bowmoor's David Rollinson, with Busby, Foord and Davis in hot pursuit. At the second windward mark Joyce was informed that he had been OCS at the start dashing his hopes of a win, this left Rollinson in the lead chased by Davis, Busby, Whitrow and Foord who had dropped back a little after a 720 penalty. The lead changed several times during the race, Whitrow storming through on one run from 3rd to 1st, eventually Davis shot to the front on the penultimate beat and held on to the finish with Whitrow 2nd, Busby 3rd and Cooke pulling up to 4th. Having sailed very consistently all day Bill Busby was able to discard a 3rd and claim the overall win by 2pts from Alan Davis. In a fleet including 17 Radials, Ross Harvey from Bowmoor emerged the winner finishing 26th overall after three very consistent results in the 20's, just ahead of Nick Hemsley from Burghfield, whose brother Will finished a very creditable 9th overall as first Youth. 1st Lady was Selina Ramm from Bowmoor finishing 15th and Harry Joyce had the consolation of 5th overall and 1st Master. The usual huge Bowmoor free tea preceded the prizegiving where 12 prizes were spread out amongst all the categories above.
Overall Results:
Scott Bader Stokes Bay Radial Qualifier 17-18.3.2001 On the 17th and 18th March 107 Radials entered the first qualifier of 2001. With a turn out many classes fail to match at their National Championships this was going to be a high scoring weekend. With plenty of tide and a light to moderate breeze Topper superstar Andy Brooks made the best of the conditions to take the first bullet. The race which, only got always at the second attempt saw many of the usual suspects out of the top places. Edmund hill scored by far his best result with a second holding Stephen Broom to third place. National champion Steve Cockerill made up for a poor first race by claiming the second race. Cockerill worked his way through the fleet to lead comfortably from Timothy Boydell. Third place went to Alex Townsend. Lucky for the front runners, they narrowly missed the container ship that decided to come straight through the fleet on the last run. Jon Emmett who was OCS in the previous race made amends with a race win from Conor Walsh in race three. Dominic Hutton managed to keep clear of the chasing pack for third in what was the lightest and trickiest race of the event. After Day one Andy Brooks was leading with Conor Walsh in second both with some consistent results. Cockerill with a race win was still in with a shout if he could post a consistent second day. Sunday brought more breeze and the cold was almost unbearable, however with just two races to be sailed the series was soon over. Emmett put in two more bullets but the battle for the top spots was going on behind. Cockerill did enough to beat Conor Walsh buy just one point by scoring a second and a third to take the event. Top male Youth Andy Brooks couldn't unfortunately match the pervious days pace and slip to third overall just clear of Stephen Broom. A solid all round performance by Brooks, never finishing out of the top ten, perhaps a name to look out for in the future. Despite poor results in races one and two, Emmett just made the top five squeezing out Edward Green who sailed his best Qualifier to date. Special mention should be made of top Junior, Ex-Optimisit legend Nick Thompson who finished top junior in his first Qualifier and Natalie Lloyd who was both top Lady and first Female under 19.
1st Steve Cockerill Stokes Bay SC 19pts
1st Junior Nick Thompson Braveheart Series 11.2.2001 - Dover Here are the race results and report for Sunday 11th February 2001. A very patchy SW force 6 wind provided some entertainment at Dover on Sunday. With some gusts reaching over thirty-five knots there were some casualties before the race: Mike Essex in his RS300 suffering a broken mast and some sail damage. A strong fleet of Laser's were present for the race, with Matt Wright was extremely confident before the start. Rob Nicholas, part of the notorious "Team Nicholas" was left to sail alone as his brother was too busy driving a bus. This left him free to show his true potential and so he picked the easiest boat of the fleet to sail; a Laser Pico. At the start, Nick Chandler and Matt Wright were at the bottom end of the line close to the shore which paid off and they were the first boats to the windward mark, although Rob Nicholas (Pico) and Sue Ogg (Europe) were only just behind. Downwind, the Lasers and the Europe showed their performance advantage over the slower boats and Nick Chandler and Matt Wright pulled out a significant lead over the first two laps. However beating back to windward was more of a struggle for the faster handicap boats. The competition between Nick and Matt in the Lasers was immense and even after one capsize each they were still neck and neck. However a mistake by Nick on the final beat left Matt to take line honours by just over a minute. Sue Ogg (Europe) was 3rd across, with Rob Nicholas in the Pico just behind. The lighter Laser sailors were generally over-powered upwind; the last three Lasers finishing some way back. There was a good performance from Rosie Turner, although a poorly picked rig (no names mentioned) meant retirement was innevitable.
The final results were as follows: Next race is Sunday 18th February 2001 @ 11.00am
Chichester Yacht Club, Merlin-Rocket and Laser-Radial Open Meeting Sunday, 22 April 2001 Reported by: David Brecknell, Publicity Officer, Chichester Yacht Club There was splendid entry of twenty-three Lasers and thirty-two Merlins for the joint Open Meeting for the two classes at Chichester Yacht Club this Sunday. The conditions were almost equally satisfactory, with a gradually increasing breeze throughout the day from the ten-fifteen start time, over a fairly complex and testing course (set by John Miles, the Club’s most experienced Race Officer) to provide two beats, a run and three reaches, to make best use of the water and to combat as far as possible the vagaries of the wind direction. It swung unpredictably as the boats approached the first weather mark, and had a good number of gusts which, as the day wore on, took their toll among the fleets on the down-wind legs as tiredness slowed reactions and capsizes followed. In the Laser fleet the prizes were easily assigned : Steve Cockerill had three wins; Charles Baillie Strong three seconds, Chris Creak three thirds and Mark Harper with a fourth & fifth to count. The leading Radial rig sailor was Jake Jefferis, and the second Andy Clare, who, in his first Open and third sail in the class, steadily climbed further up the fleet in each succeeding race. Among the Merlins things were much tighter. Three boats went out for the final race with four points each and "everything to play for." John Bell and Graham Williamson, with a third and a win, made a slight nonsense of the start ("In irons and going backwards : not in chapter one of How to Win" as Graham reported) and were uncomfortably far back at the end of the first beat. However, they fought back to fifth. Luckily for them one of their closest rivals, Patrick and Anna Blake, had made the opposite error at the start, and were over the line and failed to return and so were disqualified, while the other, Tom Stewart and Kieran Collacott, could only manage sixth. So these three finished still with four points each, and their final places were settled by the "who beat whom" rule, while Will Rainey and Liese Ward and William Warren and Rachel Cooper secured fourth and fifth places by taking first and second in the final race. Sixth prize went to Paul Davies and Sara Warren, who had a fifth and a fourth, but who were forced to retire in the last race when Paul cut his forehead badly on the corner of the mainsheet hoop. At the prize-giving Penny Yeoman presented the various trophies. These included the new "Nick’s Boat" trophy, a beautifully-made half-model of the hull of her late husband’s former boat "Rising Tsar," presented in his memory, and it was with special pleasure that she handed it to John Bell and Graham Williamson, who were sailing Time Zulu, the boat with which Nick had replaced "Rising Tsar" shortly before his untimely death. Results:
Merlin-Rockets:
Lasers & Radials:
Radials Scott Bader Tenby Radial Qualifier On the 5th and 6th of May there were 56 entries for the last of the Spring Qualifier series. Turn out was down, perhaps due to the bank holiday weekend, and it was a shame that the entry list of Highcliffe and Stokes Bay could not be matched. A five race series was held and with one discard applied, it was experience that dominated with only one youth making the top ten overall. On Saturday people launched in ten knots of breeze, but by the time they reached the race area the wind speed had halved and those who launched late were struggling to make progress against the tide. The postponement flag went up and it wasn't until the wind had shifted through nearly 180 degrees that the flags went up for the starting sequence. The race officer set a ridiculously biased line, which could only just be crossed on starboard due to the tide. Jon Emmett, Steve Cockerill and Mark Brewster port tacked the fleet but Ben Paton and Nathan Poulton who carried on left before tacking and got lifted inside to round the top mark in pole positions. Third place was Colette Blair who showed good speed to make it across from the right hand side just in front of Emmett. With the wind looking very dodgy the race officer decided to shorten the course after just one lap so the finishing positions were the same as the positions at the top mark. There was then a large wait as the wind slowly clocked right with the race course being slowly moved to compensate. The second race saw the fleet getting edgy and the first general recall of the event. However the start got away on its second attempt. Half way up the beat Nic Van Tienen crossed the fleet from the left hand side with good pressure. However he continued right allowing Emmett and Stephen Powell to get further left and take the lead. This was not to be, as a thirty degree shift in the final third of the beat gave Tienen an uncatchable lead and relegated those on the left to mid fleet positions. After a considerable time away from the fleet Steven Lee showed he was still a man to watch taking second from ex-club champion Ian Jones in third. Cockerill who was to prove the most consistent competitor did enough to grab fourth. The wind then completely died and many of the fleet started to sail in. In fact three boats got all the way in and missed the best race of the day, as the breeze swung 180 degrees and filled in to a solid 18 knots. Now with the tide under the fleet the black flag was introduced for the first time, which saw Emmett and Jones heading in for an early shower. Powell sailed the best first beat to lead round the windward mark. Cockerill showed better speed downwind to take the lead at mark two and was never threatened. Powell hung on to second until he overstood the windward mark on the second round, allowing youth national champion Andy Brooks to grab second. However he finished well clear of fourth place Guy Tipton. Sunday was far colder than the previous day but at least the wind was far steadier in both strength and direction. With a 16 knots of breeze the work rate was up which did something to keep the cold off the sailors. Race four got away cleanly with Natalie Llyod making the best start, but it was Mark Brewster who led round the windward mark. Emmett showed superior downwind speed and snatched the lead at the bottom mark and then pulled away to the finish. Brewster managed to keep Brooks in third, with Cockerill sailing a storming last beat to take fourth. The last race saw Emmett lead round the top mark from Cockerill with these two opening a considerable gap from the fleet. Cockerill was unable to close the gap on Emmett and Emmett was unable to pull away from Cockerill. It was not until a mark rounding error from Emmett, that Cockerill snatched the lead, staying just one wave clear on the final run to take the bullet and the event. Brewster who excelled in the breeze, achieved another solid score with a third, just in front of youth world representative Natalie Lloyd. Forgetting about Cockerill, the overall results were extremely close with just four points separating second to fifth, with most firsts being used to separate third and fourth place.
Overall Results:
Category Results:
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