Flying Fifteen Team Racing at Bassenthwaite Sailing Club
by Mik Chappell 15 Oct 2013 16:05 BST
12-13 October 2013
Tim Chittenden & Elaine Fairlamb (Bassenthwaite SC) during the Flying Fifteen Team Racing at Bassenthwaite © Mik Chappell
Last weekend Bassenthwaite Sailing Club hosted the first of two consecutive Open Meetings. This was the annual Flying Fifteen Team Racing Event. The forecast of wet and extremely windy weather dissuaded a number of regular visitors from trailing their boats to the North Lakes and reduced the number of entrants to ten.
Three races were scheduled for Saturday and took place in extremely grey conditions, so much so that the light had started to fade midway during the final race. The north easterly wind was extremely gusty although the average wind strength was less than had been forecast.
Instead of the teams of three boats which has been the norm for this Event in recent years teams consisted of two boats, generally helmed by a top crew supported by ones with less experience. Hence one pair had selected a team name of Old Hand and Apprentice – although, in this case, it was not immediately apparent which was which!
All three of Saturday's races were won by Neil Platt and Ian Smith from Bolton SC with second places taken by Simon Longstaff / Jon Denwood (Bass SC) and the two Scottish boats of John Reekie / Rory Yardley and Cammy Dunn / Steve Lee. The Dunn / Lee boat had lead for most of the final race and only just lost out on the line.
Race four on Sunday morning was a strange affair with patchy wind and holes which left boats stationary for minutes on end and a significant number selecting to retire. Reekie / Yardley eventually crossed the line to win from Platt / Smith.
The Race Officer had announced that the next and final race would follow on immediately but frustrated competitors headed for their moorings to have lunch and to wait for the wind to fill in. However, with the galley being unprepared, the wind strengthening and the committee boat still on station, six competitors made it the start line. The lead positions from the previous race were reversed with Platt / Smith taking a fourth win and even having to discard a first place for a net score of three.
The Scottish Invaders from Loch Lomond finished in the next two places, Reekie / Yardley just taking the second spot from Dunn / Lee and this team easily won the all important Team Award. The "Grotty Potty" (we'll leave readers to imagine what that is like!) went to Simon Longstaff for a declining performance over the two days and two many misfortunes to report.
Next weekend sees a further round in the GP14 Grand Prix national series where both the weather and the number of visiting boats will improve.