Itchenor School's Week - Day 4
by Alastair Pusinelli 27 Jun 2014 11:48 BST
23-27 June 2014
420s
The 420 competition at Itchenor Schools' Week, sponsored by Mind The Gap Year and with support from the National Firefly Class Association and British International 420 Class Association is effectively all but over after an astonishing display from Surbiton High School.
The pair of Katie and Isabel Davies won five out of six races, and now have one hand on the trophy.
The Davies pairing led from the front in race one ahead of Guildford High School's Ellie and Izzy Barker and Stamford's James Leetch and Jemima Leedham.
Guildford High and Stamford could not deal with the pace of the Surbiton boat and it was clear at the halfway mark that the race was already one. Guilford High fought off Stamford to claim second.
The exact same result occurred in the second race with the others sailors unable to match the sheer pace of the Davies sisters.
The Barker sisters from Guildford High were in third for the first two laps but managed to overtake the Stamford pairing on the last lap to claim second position.
However Stamford made amends in the third race, finally amounting a challenge to the Surbiton boat.
Leetch and Leedham took the lead on the first lap and fought off Davies girls to record their first win of the day with James Allen Girls School sailors Lucy Mellers and Izzy Lewis crossing the line in third.
The Surbiton boat resumed their domination in the afternoon session and was way ahead in the first lap of race five, with Stamford and St Catherines in the chasing group.
Some boats struggled to turn round the second mark as the tide was pushing them onto the buoy, forcing some boars to jibe away before attempting to tack once more.
But the Davies sisters kept their distance from the rest of the fleet and cruised to victory. Stamford's Leetch and Leedham and St Catherines' Grace Yeoman and Mica Narroway finished second and third respectively.
The two all-girl pairings of Surbiton and Stamford fought it out in race five and were neck-and-neck during the first lap as the rest of the fleet battled with the tide.
But once again Katie and Isabel Davies pulled ahead after the first lap, with Leetch and Leedham just about holding on and there was a battle for third between James Allen Girls School and Sherborne's Josh Croft and Harry Guy.
The Davies sisters extended their lead giving them a comfortable win ahead of Stamford with James Allen's Mellers and Lewis holding off the Sherborne boys to take third.
The final race really summed up the day with the Surbiton streaking ahead from the get-go, but the James Allen Girls did begin to close the gap during the second lap.
However, it was too little too late, as the Davies's claimed their fifth victory of the day ahead of James Allen's Mellers and Lewis and Stamford's Leetch and Leedham.
Fireflys
Thursday marked the start of competitive racing for the Fireflys and 420s with some much stronger winds for the sailors to deal with and, for the first time this week, the racing started on time.
In the first race of the Fireflys was thoroughly entertaining but confusing for spectators. After an initial cluster to the first mark, in which Magdalen's Owen Hallett and Daisy Baxter were in front, the fleet were split onto the North and South sides of the channel as they headed for the America's Cup style gate.
This lead to confusion concerning who was in front, as boats were challenging from either side of the harbour, but Sevenoaks' Ben Moveley Smith and Robbie Edwards began to pull away.
Sevenoaks and Magdalen continued to battle from either sides of the harbour and it was indeed Sevenoaks who claimed victory with Magdalen in second and Ransom Everglades' Tucker Weed and Vera Mariani third.
In the second race, the Ransom Everglades boats of Shawn Harvey and Jack Malloy, and once again Weed and Mariani were fastest out of the gates and were ahead of the fleet at the first mark, with Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and RGS Guildford hot in pursuit.
However Harvey and Malloy extended their lead on the second lap and eased to victory ahead of RGS Guildford's Patrick Croghan and James Dickinson, up from fifth, and Sevenoaks' Moveley Smith and Edwards.
The third race was completely dominated by the Americans of Ransom Everglades. The Miami school had the first four boats round the first mark and it was a question of which pair would win the race with three boats in contention.
Alex Swerdlow and Dylan Denman, Tucker Weed and Vera Mariani, and Shawn Harvey and Jack Malloy were all tied for the lead at the halfway point, but the pairs of Swerdlow and Denman and Harvey and Malloy broke away.
Swerdlow and Denman pipped their counterparts to the line, and Weed and Mariani finished third to complete a Ransom Everglades clean sweep.
Race four provided an opportunity for the rest of the field, with the Americans spilt throughout the fleet.
However, Harvey and Malloy pulled away from the fleet and it was essentially a battle for second place Sevenoaks' Ed Hughes and Issy Gordon and Millfield's Campbell Manzoni and Octavia Greig.
Sevenoaks picked up their third podium finish of the day claiming second in front of the Millfield boat.
Race five was again a very open affair, with the Ransom Everglades boats battling with Magdalen and Millfield.
But, somewhat surprisingly, the two English boats managed to hold off the Americans with Magdalen's Hallett and Baxter claiming top spot and Millfield's Manzoni and Greig in second leaving a fight for third between the Americans which was won by Weed sand Mariani.
The final race took place in some very gloomy conditions which seemed to provide a more open contest in a race back to the sailing club.
None of the Americans competed for the top places, leaving three Magdalen boats to fight it out with RGS Guildford and Winchester College.
Magdalen's Will Ing and Adam Rathmell led from the early stages but Winchester's Miles Jones and Tom Nottingham challenged them all the way to the line but to no avail with another Magdalen pair of Tom Simmons and Samay Mellor claiming third.