Hurricane 5.9 & SX Open at Stone Sailing Club

A total of 7 visitor boats joined the 6 home teams making Stone the highest attended meeting of the season so far. Potentially there were 7 boats in the running for the title but in the end it was dominated by a local team.

Of interest in the fleet was the number of new young faces starting to appear, Chelsea Furber now in her second year in the Hurricane, Johnny Van Ingen now sailing with season campaigner Geoff Tindal, Eddie Smith sailing with Pete Sherwin and Arthur Brooks sailing with class chairman Andy Bedford. All these newcomers are a welcome addition to the fleet.

Saturday dawned and with the start time of 12 o'clock pushed back until 2pm to allow the wind to fill in all 13 boats launched. The light winds and a strong running tide meant that this was always going to be a tricky one to master. Straight out of blocks was the local pairing of Jack Tindale and Hugo Bull, neither are strangers to Hurricane sailing but this is the first season they have sailed together. They took the first two races in style. In their wake was the current National Champion John Ready sailing with Henry Seifert who posted a 2nd and 4th.

Other local boats both crewed by brothers of Richard and Chris Hanmore took 4th and 2nd and Trevor and Kevin Bawden posting two 3rds. The third and last race of the day turned out to be a lottery with the wind failing fast against the ebb tide. Tindle/Bull and Ready/Seifert had had enough and retired leaving the Hanmores to take the win from Lloyd and Amanda Turner with John Tuckwell and Chelsea Furber taking 3rd.

Sunday and the fleet was met with more wind than the previous day. The course was again set across the tide but starting was still challenging. Tindale /Bull revelled in these conditions taking bullets in all three races even when gusts came through the fleet claiming some victims including Ready / Seifert who was only able to post one 2nd and retired for the rest of the day. The Hanmores finished the three races posting 6th, 4th and 3rd while the Bawdens posted 4th 3rd and 2nd. Due to the increasing winds by the last race only 6 boats were left.

The event was won by Jack Tindale and Hugo Bull winning 5 out of the 6 races, second was the Hanmores on equal points with the Bawdens with the Hanmores taking 2nd place on count back. Bawdens were therefore third with Tuckwell and Furber in 4th place, although they were first of the visiting boats.

Stone Open Meeting is always a classic on the Hurricane circuit. It was made just as welcoming this year with fleet captain Geoff Tindal and wife Jan opening up their home for after racing drinks for the Hurricane fleet.

Thanks as always goes to the club for their race management and hospitality and to the class sponsors, Typhoon, Andark and Insurance 4 Dinghies by Towergate Marine.

The next event is Starcross in Devon which all allow the fleet some last minute practise and coaching before the Nationals at Harwich in August. With this result by Tindale and Bull the fleet is charged and the race for the title open to anyone.

Overall Results: