The Rutland Chandlery Spring 18ft Skiff Grand Prix at Rutland Sailing Club
by Matt Kiddle 11 Mar 2014 20:01 GMT
8-9 March 2014
Rutland Chandlery Spring 18ft Skiff Grand Prix © T J G Chapman
After a harsh winter, the sun shone on the The Rutland Chandlery Spring Grand Prix, the season opener in the skiff calendar. Rutland has been a winter training base for many of the Skiff fleet, so this was an opportunity for the boats to put it together around a race track.
Day 1 saw a strong building breeze with some tricky puffs across the racetrack. In the first race Awlgrip took the lead off the line and lead the fleet round the first windward mark, but were caught out by a shifting gust leading to a swim halfway down the first run, The Rutland Chandlery Team took advantage and went on the take the win with Awlgrip making it back up to 2nd when English Braids and Sail 4 Cancer swam at the bottom mark.
Race 2 had built to top end conditions gusting over 25 knots, The Rutland Chandlery Team lead a close chasing pack, and a spectacular bearaway capsize lead them to lose their lead to, and provide an interesting top mark obstacle for, Awlgrip who went on to win. English braids handled the conditions well with their new middle man stepping up to the challenging conditions to take 2nd from Rutland who were chasing hard.
Day 2 was a tough rig call with the wind around 14 knots, the choice between the upwind efficiency of the 2 rig in 14+ Knots vs the gains the 1 rig kite brings, the fleet chose to go with the 2 rig appreciating the importance of a windward mark lead on such a short course.
The first race saw Awlgrip hit the right off the line to take an early lead halfway up the beat, but Rutland and English braids made the ground up the centre of the track when Awlgrip pushed too close to the peninsula, the 3 boats rounded within seconds at the top with new team Sail 4 Cancer just behind, all 4 boat finished within a minute with Awlgrip taking the win from English Braids.
Race 2 was another closely fought battle with lead changes at nearly every turn, English braids were the masters of finding the breeze on the runs and took the race on the line 3 seconds ahead of Awlgrip.
Awlgrip lead race 3 start to finish showing superior upwind speed in the stronger breeze, a third win to add to the 2 second places was enough to wrap up the event with a race to spare. The final placing in this race came down to the wire after English Braids lost a crew. They managed to recover and beat Sail 4 Cancer by half a boat length on the line.
Going into the final race 2nd place was still up for grabs. The bottom mark was a raft up with all boats converging at the same time, The Rutland Chandlery kept cool and squeezed out of the mark narrowly leading and extended to take the win, tying on points with English braids and taking 2nd overall on countback.
6 races round off the event, with Awlgrip taking the win followed by The Rutland Chandlery Team, English Braids and new team Sail 4 Cancer. Great close racing was had by all, and new team Sail 4 Cancer showed moments of great pace, they will certainly be a team to look out for this season. Many thanks to The Rutland Chandlery and English Braids for putting together some fantastic prizes and keeping the boats on the water throughout the winter.
The next event of the season is the Stone Grand Prix on the 10th and 11th May.