Hornet Open at Carsington Sailing Club

A high quality fleet turned up at Carsington for the Hornet Open and the lake, in its usual fashion, didn't fail to provide entertaining weather. Some of the fleet arrived on Friday evening and camped providing entertaining stories of little wind and ice on the tent to the Saturday arrivals who arrived to a lake temperature of 2 degrees and a steadily building breeze.

Saturday's first race commenced in a driving hailstorm, shifty high winds and boats surviving to the windward mark. However, by the time boats began to peel off onto the reaches, the wind was dropping and the sun shining. These violent changes in weather continued for most of the weekend making the racing tight and mistakes being punished with a dunking or gear failure.

Race 1 saw all boats arrive at the windward mark within lengths of each other but Strangler/Pippa Rogers got round first hotly pursued by Mike Owen/Andy Holmes and Dean/Adam Saxton while Toby/Dawn Barsley-Dale came round last due to a wind induced rope tangle off the start line. The race lead changed markedly after gear failure and a swim for Strang/Pippa which relegated them to 4th with Toby/Dawn working their way to the front to take the win and other positions remaining unchanged.

Strangler/Pippa returned to form for race 2 dominating from the beginning and relegating Toby/Dawn to 2nd and Mike/Andy taking the final podium position. The final 2 races of the day were shorter in format and Race 3 began with a port tack start from Toby/Dawn resulting in a significant lead by the windward mark. Strang/Pippa came in 2nd with Dean/Adam 3rd.

Race 4 saw some entertaining America's Cup style pre-start between Toby/Dawn & Stang/Pippa and many place changes occurred. First to the windward mark was Mike/Andy chased by Toby/Dawn but the whole fleet was bunched and nothing could be taken for granted. On the final beat any one of 3 boats could have led at the windward mark but Toby/Dawn managed to sniggle to the front and hold on for the win from Strang/Pippa in 2nd and Mike/Andy a frustrated 3rd after a great start.

Saturday night saw some very tired fleet refuelling in the company of the Javelins at the Knockerdown pub where massive amounts of protein were consumed with appropriate quantities of beer.

Sunday morning presented similar weather conditions but from the opposite direction, great catering at the club (they have the best cakes!) and all to play for in the final races. The wind continued to strengthen during the start sequence and Strang/Pippa needed to win both races to take the event. Knowing this, they went on the attack on the first beat but this resulted in a capsize. Despite charging hard and showing impressive downwind pace, they failed to catch Toby/Dawn.

Overall Results: