Craftinsure Merlin Rocket Silver Tiller Event at Parkstone Yacht Club

Merlin Rocket Silver Tiller at Parkstone © David Harding / www.sailingscenes.com

Merlin Rocket Silver Tiller at Parkstone © David Harding / www.sailingscenes.com

A bumpy day was predicted, and with a 20+ knot easterly for the Saturday outing to Poole Bay for the Craftinsure Merlin Rocket Silver Tiller held at Parkstone Yacht Club on Saturday 28th September, it turned out to be just that!

All 25 boats got away cleanly for race 1, with 2m waves and a confused swell, those crews who could keep the boat flat were rewarded, but you had to put up with washing machine style conditions. Stu Bithell and Sophie Wegvelin came out the blocks first, but the spinnaker work was demanding and the long standing teams could take advantage of errors that enevitable creep in on windy days such as these. Gorringe/Lewis snuck past them on the leeward mark at the beginning of the 3rd lap and held it to the end.

With the wind increasing slightly more for race 2, numbers were reduced by about a third and was led from start to finish by Gorringe/Lewis., the downwind legs were now very exciting especially with the kite up, the height of the waves (or rather the depths you were plummeting) made them err remarkable!

The final race kicked off, with just 9 starters, in a steady 23knt gusting 28 knts. Gorringe/Lewis led at the first mark but flunked the host with the helm apparently trying to help with the hoist, Bithell/Wegvelin stayed ahead with judicious use of the spinnaker to take the race from Richard Whitworth and Jane Calvert.

That evening a North Cover was awarded to the crew that completed all races but with the highest score, with some free beer curtesy of Tricky Dicky Sailing the evening was eventful, I think?

Sunday was an "in the harbour day" with an additional 8 boats, taking the fleet total to 33 boats, the programme was for round the cans in a 7-12 knots NE breeze.

Race 4 saw Stuart and (Uncle) Richard demonstrate extreme tactics to maintain the inside overlap (we wondered what the family gatherings were like and what "games" were played). Anyway, these shenanigans lasted all through the race with Whitworth/Calvert finally taking first from Bithell/Wegvelin and Jon Turner/Richard Parslow sneaking in to third.

Race 5 saw the black flag come out for the first time; the race finally got away taking the fleet past the harbour mouth. With tide running in 3 different directions within a100m area, local knowledge you would have though helped, nope. Turner/Parslow kept their cool and took line honours having led round every mark, Dan Alsop with Alice Rook sailed really well to take second and Bithell/Wegvelin third.

The last race saw the wind veer to the east and dropping, so with a very different course set up the fleet got away to a clean start; the left was the way to go. Whitworth, Turner, Gorringe and Bithell broke clear of the fleet but with plenty of weed blown into the harbour from the easterly the day before, it was easy to "suddenly" go slow. Bithell/Wegvelin stamped their authority on the event by leading from the first mark, took line honours and the series. Results can be seen here: http://www.parkstoneyachtclub.com/page1480.html

A big well done and thanks to the Race team led by Barry Rolfe and generous sponsorship from HD Sails, Creation covers Tricky Dicky Sailing and Quay West Marine.

Overall Results: