International 14 Gallon Trophy at Itchenor Sailing Club

Drizzle to bright sunshine and a closely fought race

The Gallon, the second most important race of the year, saw a healthy turnout of 17 boats. With POW week in Falmouth starting in a week's time it was also a chance for everyone to gauge where they were and to make any last minute tweaks.

The fleet launched in drizzle and a little over 5 knots. This lasted for the sail out to Brackelsham Bay but fortunately the sun began to shine shortly before the start. The Gallon course has always been the same (well certainly for as long as Fitzy has been sailing 14's – need we say more) and consists of Sausage, Triangle, Sausage then head back into Chichester harbour past East Head, up the Itchenor reach to finish on the Gallon line – it's a bit like orienteering but in a 14!

The start was port biased which saw most boats clinging to the pin end and then looking to tack quickly for the long port tack to the windward mark. As the fleet approached the windward mark the wind shifted favouring those on the right hand side. First round were Ben McGrane and James Hughes, closely followed by Dan Holman / Neil Trickett and Katie Nurton / Damian Ash.

With the wind remaining very light the first leeward mark saw Ben and James round first followed by a pack of boats including, Dan, Katie and Douglas Pattison/Mark Tait. The second leg upwind saw the majority of the fleet rounding and remaining on port tack with only a few boats tacking off and hitting the left hand side. The wind however filled in from the left, mid-way up the beat and this saw the leader of the left (Glen Truswell and Chris Blackburn) powering themselves into the top three. Ben and James rounded the windward first with an extended lead but a large knot in the spinnaker halyard allowed the others to catch up to the back their transom. The next two legs of the triangle saw the lead bunch stick together with Ben rounding the leeward first but with Glen right on his heels followed by Douglas.

The final upwind leg of the course out in the bay saw the lead change for the first time and also for the wind to strengthen to around 8 knots. The port tack across the course to the windward mark headed consistently which allowed Glen to overhaul Ben and round first. The lead however had changed back by the leeward mark and it was now for a very tight reach back into Chichester harbour. The reach back into the harbour saw a luffing match between Ben and Glen with Glen eventually pushing the stick harder and using his extra crew weight to his advantage and thus rolling Ben.

The luffing match however had allowed Douglas to catch up and as soon as the opportunity arose he neatly gybed off into fresh pressure which allowed him to overhaul both Glen and Ben. The two sail reach / brief spinnaker hoist back to Itchenor and to the Gallon line saw Douglas and Mark maintain their lead to the finish followed by Ben and James in 2nd and Glen and Chris in 3rd. 4th place went to Sam Pascoe and stand in crew Tom Partington who gained places all race.

Congratulations to Douglas and Mark who sailed a great race to top last year's second place with the Gallon trophy winning bullet.

Next stop POW Week and the POW Cup in Falmouth which looks like it will be a great turn out.