2ndhanddinghies RS200 SW Ugly Tour at Exe Sailing Club

Glorious conditions

The RS200 SW Ugly Tour, now sponsored by 2ndhanddinghies.com, has had a very happy knack of visiting Exmouth in the autumn at exactly the right time to be treated to some excellent sailing conditions. Round 4 of this year's 2ndhanddinghies Ugly Tour continued that trend in fine style when 13 visiting boats joined the home fleet for 4 fine races in sunshine, blue skies and 10-16 knots in a shifty northerly. Once race officer Les Arscott had got the knack of setting the right length start line he did a very smart job of rapidly turning round races whilst constantly moving marks to keep good true courses.

Jayne Johnson/Jamie Barker was always involved in the fight at the front and led a couple of races; Ben Cornish/Marin Evans also led at some first windward marks; Tony/Zach Freer were fast all day and pulled through rapidly downwind. But the racing was dominated by the BCYC duo of John Teague/Louise Fisher and Claire Walsh/Darren McNamara. Going into the final race overall victory was between these two; Claire/Darren just had the advantage with 1.1.3 compared to John/Louise's 1.2.2. The fight for overall victory became even closer when the pair pulled through the fleet on the first run to be right at the front and rounded the different marks of the first leeward gate at exactly the same time. Quickly on the second beat John/Louise gained the upper hand to lead which they held to the finish; with the pair now tied on points John/Louise won with more second places.

So it was a very happy fleet that returned ashore for gallons of free tea and the now legendry Exe cakes!! Paul/Pat Teague won the silver division whilst local young stars Sam Jacklin/Freddie Jones won the bronze division.

With two events left on the 2ndhanddinghies SW Ugly Tour Teague/Fisher are the only people that can catch Matt Mee/Emma Norris but need to win another event without Mee/Norris improving their score. The Silver division looks like a tense Teague family battle with daughter Liz 3 points ahead of parents Paul/Pat. Mike Riley/Mary Hill are 5 points ahead of Peter/Flea Haddrell in the bronze division. So all to play for at Chew Valley LSC on Saturday Oct 13th.

Overall Results: