505 Open at Stone Sailing Club

The 21st & 22nd of June saw the 505 fleet return to one of the best open meetings of the year – a statement that will be no surprise to anyone who has every visited the friendly and inviting club.

Unfortunately some members of the fleet paid too much attention to the internet whether forecasts, and so missed out on 6 fantastically hard fought and challenging races, sailing in 8 -10 knots of breeze.

Race 1 saw the return to the 505 fleet of Matt and Dan Hart who rounded the windward mark in the lead closely followed by Ben Iliffe & Richard Nurse. Matt and Dan eventually worked a good lead, crossing the line first only to discover that there were OCS. This moved Tudor Owen & Keith Boarders up to 1st Martin Hodgson and Adrian Miles into second with Ben & Richard into 3rd.

Race 2 was won by Martin and Adrian who sailed a good race to beat Tudor and Keith with Ben and Richard finished in third.

Race 3 and the last of the day saw Ben & Richard start well, pulling out a 100 yard lead by half way up the beat, when the wind died and filled in with a big shift to the right that saw 4 boats lifted on the inside of them – the biggest beneficiary was Matt & Dan who had been forced to tack off at the start.

Over the course of the next two laps the whole fleet fought for places gaining and losing as they raced. Eventually Matt & Dan broke free into the lead with Ben and Richard in second, only for their pole elastics to break, forcing them out furthest to the right of the course, with another wind shift to the right letting Martin & Adrian and Tudor and Keith through for the race to finish in that order.

The fleet sailed in for rehydration and a fantastic meal put on by the club that could only be described as buzzing with members and competitors alike.

Sunday dawned with the threat of a dying breeze. Fortunately the wind held and the sailors headed out for 3 races in what turned out to be similar conditions to Saturday.

Race 4 got underway with more tight racing and place changing – Matt & Dan fighting Tudor & Keith over the early lead with Nigel Grogan and Neil Fulcher in third. The place changing continued to the last run where Tudor and Keith overtook Matt & Dan. Ben & Richard over took Nigel and Neil within yards of the line to take third, which as it turns out worked well for Nigel and Neil who confessed to like 4th much more than third anyway.

Race 5 finished with Matt and Dan taking their second win of the regatta from Martin and Adrian in second, Ben and Richard in Third and Tudor and Keith in 4th – setting up the last race as a decider.

Race 6 saw Ben and Richard lead around the windward mark, only briefly losing it to Matt and Dan before taking the win from Tudor and Keith in 2nd who secured the overall regatta victory from Martin and Adrian, who finished the race in 3rd and second overall in the regatta. Matt & Dan finished 4th the race and third overall on count back from Ben and Richard in 4th and Nigel and Neil in 5th.

Overall Results:

1st Tudor Owen & Keith Boarders, 9093
2nd Martin Hodgson & Adrian Miles, 8963
3rd Matt Hart & Dan Hart, 9085
4th Ben Iliffe & Richard Nurse, 8514
5th Nigel Grogan & Neil Fulcher, 8974
6th Terry Selfe & Alan Montague, 8650
7th Bobby Johnson & Tony Merry, 8860