Scorpion National Championships at Paignton Sailing Club - Day 4
by Tom Jeffcoate 22 Aug 2012 22:13 BST
18-24 August 2012
Sponsored by fotoboat.com and Allen Brothers
More sun, more wind and more fantastic racing (although I would say that as you will see later). There was a later start today to help people recover from Scorpions Got Talent – brilliantly hosted by Ant Ritchie and Dec Hannan with judging expertly carried out by Cheryl Cole, Lady Helen of Hackney and Miss Wales 2011. It does need saying that 2 of the judges looked distinctly like Steve Graham and Baz Wolfenden but maybe that was the beer affecting the judgement.
Back to the racing and one championship race followed by the crew's race was the order of the day. With a SW force 4 and sunshine there are a lot worse ways to spend a Wednesday afternoon. Up the first beat it was Steve Walker and Jerry Hannabuss who picked the shifts best to lead round the mark followed by event leaders Tom Gillard and Olly Wells, Roy Castle and Ray Mears, and Tom Jeffcoate and Harvey Hillary. On a triangle consisting of two screaming reaches, it was Jeffcoate and Hillary who pulled through to the lead which they held to the finish. On the 2nd lap it was Dave Wade and Ben Rayner making a welcome return to the front of the fleet who pulled through to 2nd and despite closing to within a few boat lengths of Jeffcoate & Hillary they couldn't get past and had to settle for 2nd, a 15 place improvement on their last outing. Behind them a close battle saw Gillard and Wells edge out Tim Parsons and Alex Hayman for 3rd and 4th.
With 9 crews convincing their helms that they would look after their boats in the now breezy conditions the Crews race was quickly underway. Worst start went to Harvey Hillary (apparently it's easier to tell people how to do it than do it yourself) as he rolled round the pin end and only narrowly avoided a capsize while doing turns. After a cracking start, at the first mark it was Penny Jeffcoate leading from Alex Hayman and despite the spinnaker work lacking its usual finesse these two were soon up and flying away. Behind them a close pack including Harvey Hillary, Simon Hibbert, Rachel Rhodes and Sam Barker were quickly in pursuit. Alex Hayman, ably crewed by Tim Parsons of course, hit the front on the second reach and soon pulled out a comfortable lead over Penny. Behind these two Harvey managed to incur the wrath of the judge who had stopped out to enjoy the show and was doing spins for some enthusiastic mainsheet trimming. Despite this and almost taking out Simon Hibbert he would go on to finish 2nd passing Penny who finished 3rd on the final reach.
Overall results are now online at www.sailscorpion.co.uk
Crew's Race Results:
1st Alex Hayman
2nd Harvey Hillary
3rd Penny Jeffcoate
4th Simon Hibbert
5th Sam Barker
6th Rachel Rhodes
7th Alan Ritchie
8th Luke Hardy
9th Dale Giles