2011 Sunday Early Points Series: Race Report Race 2 (March 6th 2011)
Written by Barry Sticklen Thursday, 10 March 2011 00:00
The second race of the Sunday early points series was sailed on Sunday 6th March. The Race Officer John Levell set the course for both the Fast fleet and the Medium fleet boats of; Jack in the Basket (port), Black & Orange (port) & Plus mark. It was to be three times round for the Fast fleet & twice round for the Medium fleet boats.
5 starters came to the line in the Fast fleet and 4 Medium. The wind was in the East North East Force 4 ish, wind over tide.
10.30 came and it was Geoff Havers & Richard Keeton first off in their 29er in the fast fleet with Tig Williams in his RS 600 starting on Starboard, the rest of the Fast fleet starting on Port. By the end of the first beat the 29er had reached Jack in the Basket first with the RS 600 2nd followed by the RS 800 of Richard Lilley & Jules Thomas and the RS 400 of John Cooper & Becci Wigley.
On reaching Plus Mark and after a bit of confusion over the direction to the next mark from Black & Orange, the order had changed to RS 400, RS 600, RS 800 with the 29er trailing. On the second beat to Jack in the Basket, all 4 boats passed through the line within 20 seconds and the order had changed once again to RS 800, RS 600, RS 400, followed by the Laser 4000 of Mike and Ben Baker. At Jack in the Basket the next time round, the order had changed yet again to RS 600, 29er, RS 800, RS 400. The Laser 4000 capsized at the line and the 29er capsized just before the line.
The final order became RS 800 1st , 29er 2nd , RS 600 3rd , RS 400 4th, but when the handicaps were applied the final Fast result became:
Geoff Havers & Richard Keeton (29er) 1st, John Cooper & Becci Wigley (RS 400) 2nd, Tig Williams (RS 600) 3rd & Richard Lilley & Jules Thomas 4th.
While this excitement had been happening, the Medium fleet had started off at 10.35, with the Tasar of Nigel Walbank & Toby Power hitting the line and tearing off towards Jack in the Basket like a scalded cat. They pulled out quite some lead on the rest of the fleet. The Wayfarers were in close company with a bit of match racing going on. David Smethurst & Sandy Reid-Peters in their Wayfarer were ahead of Tony Christopher & John Sims also in a Wayfarer at Plus mark, but Tony and John managed to sneak back into 2nd place before rounding Jack in the Basket.
When they reached the finish line, Nigel & Toby were approx 7 minutes in the lead while the Wayfarers were still battling it out. There was only 1 second separating the Wayfarers at the finish.
Applying the handicaps did not affect the finishing positions this time with the final Medium results being:
Nigel Walbank & Toby Power (Tasar) 1st, Tony Christopher & John Sims (Wayfarer) 2nd, David Smethurst & Sandy Reid-Peters 3rd .
