Gul GP14 Midland & East Coast Championships at Chase Sailing Club

The weekend of 29th & 30th March saw the second event of the Craftinsure sponsored GP14 Grand Prix circuit, almost 6 months after last major championships at the 'End of Seasons' at Bassenthwaite. With online pre-entry a must, we knew a strong fleet of at least 32 boats were going to congregate at Chasewater, the home of Chase SC, properly getting back on its feet after several years out of action with dam repairs. With a midday start, it was great to see so many travellers from all over the British Isles, as far afield as Derwent up north and Greystones over in Eire.

The Easterly breeze was building to a cracking force four as Race One was brought under starters orders. A few raised eyebrows with green boards in the course suggested carnage may have ensued at the first windward mark. Amazingly, there were no fallers at the first fence, it was the second reach were there were a few casualties – a tight leg in the building breeze tested many; this early in the season you could tell who'd been on the water over the winter. Sam Watson & Andy Hunter, in their Boon / HD combination showing impressive speed as they stormed into a healthy lead, Greg Thomas & Sarah Allen their closest competitors sailing their own race, again some distance ahead of Ian Willis & Keith Dutton. Those three would've seen on the shore the growing number of hulls who'd had their variety of issues, gear failure being the downside of a windy first race of the year.

Race two was the Richard Instone / Jim Toothill show as they dominated the racetrack from start to finish; they'd been at the pin end, got the start, cleared the fleet and were gone. Sam and Andy did consolidate their position with a second, ahead of Shane McCarthy and Damien Bracken in third.

The final race of the day saw the emergence of Graham Flynn & Adam Froggatt. They'd been consistent with 4th places in the first two races - to win they knew a top three was a must. The downside was they were still chasing Watson & Hunter who were being dominant, their lead in this one was becoming a masterclass, fittingly winning the Richard Estaugh trophy for the race win, awarded in memory of one of Chasewater's legends. Shane MacCarthy also ended the day with a second good result, ahead of the Flynn/Froggatt boat.

Overnight saw Sam & Andy up front, a commanding lead, 7 points clear of their nearest rivals. Sunday saw a similar wind direction, just a couple of Beaufort strengths lighter. However it was the same story up front, the Boon/HD pairing of Watson / Hunter taking the bullet; however this time they stole the victory from Flynn / Froggatt on the final beat having banged left, hitting the committee boat end of the finish line. Ellie Davies crewed by Adam McGovern joined the party this race, coming home in third (confirming her as lead female helm), ahead of the consistent Instone/Toothill boat.

If there was a turning point in the weekend, it was right here, right now. Race 5, all Sam & Andy had to do was get a steady finish and the event was theirs. Those who remember the Inlands last year with domination turning to disaster; this was a repeat. Sam got himself caught OCS, found out halfway up the beat, went back and eventually climbed back up to 18th. The second part of the disaster trilogy was that both Flynn and Instone had again been consistent, coming home in first and third respectively.

It was now a matter of Maths. Flynn had 14 points with nothing more than a 4th counting: Instone 19 points, carrying a 7th: Watson with 23pts with that 18 counting.

I'll let you make your own mind up on what happened in the final race of the series. Flynn & Froggatt's race plan was to scupper Sam & Andy's event by match racing them from the pre-start sequence; covering, penalising with penalty turns, slowing down to cover again, sailing them literally to back of the fleet, knowing that Sam and Andy had to get a 9th place to beat them on countback. Whether it was poor judgement or poor maths I'll leave it for you to decide - the Flynn/Froggatt boat's actions were handing the event to Rich Instone & Jim Toothill. They were sailing their own race in second behind Ian Dobson & Sam Maxwell who took the race win. Whether they were aware of the implications of what was happening during the race I don't know, both Rich & Jim certainly were surprised to hear that the event was theirs on coming ashore. They had won the event on countback from Flynn, with that second place, discarding the 7th; Watson & Hunter took third overall, seven places short in that final race.

It has taken Richard 35 years to win this event - as he stated at the prize-giving, there was a lot of pleasure in finally winning his maiden Midland & East Coast Area Championships at Chase SC, where it all started.

Leading the Silver Fleet home were Neil & Hannah Davies from Chase, the Bronze led home by Ann Penny, crewed by Duncan Greenhalgh. Duncan in his capacity as President of the Association expressed the fleet's sincere thanks to Chase SC for their fantastic running of the event and to our sponsors, Gul and Craftinsure.

For the Midlands Sailors, the next event is at Staunton Harold on Sunday 13th April (DE73 8DL). Please do try to support your local clubs in the hosting of their open meetings.

For the Craftinsure Grand Prix, we next meet up at Derwent Reservoir (DH8 9PT) on 3rd/4th/5th May. Entries are pre-entry only via the GP14 website.

Once again, huge thanks to all at Chase for their most welcoming attention to detail throughout the weekend, the team on the water being matched by the support in the galley and the bar on the Saturday evening. A great start to the 2014 Craftinsure Grand Prix.