Enterprise open meeting at Tynemouth Sailing Club
by Paul Young 23 Jul 2014 11:36 BST
19-20 July 2014
One of the traditional warm-ups for the Ent national championships, Tynemouth Regatta suffered this year from a forecast of extremely light winds, meaning just 11 entries surfaced. Of six scheduled races only three would be completed.
Saturday's racing was relocated from the North Sea into the Tyne estuary due to persistent fog, and furthermore had to be postponed in order to fit between scheduled shipping. A strong ebb tide added to the challenge, particularly downwind, and there was even a thunderstorm/downpour for good measure.
Lunn/Blackburn led from the start, and though team Honnor did their best to keep up, first place was never seriously under threat. Slightly closer racing was enjoyed by the next group of (mostly local) boats. With two laps of the course taking over 90 minutes, one race was more than enough for the day.
Sunday's visibility was much better, however the wind was mostly non-existent and rather variable in direction. The race officer had another tough job on his hands, but was determined to get as many races in as possible, out at sea this time. Lunn/Blackburn again led race 2 from team Honnor, from start to finish; Watson/Mowl put up a strong challenge as probably the lightest team on the water, but had to be content with third place.
Race 2 finished just in time, as what little breeze there had been decided to first disappear, then tease everyone from a few very different directions, before eventually settling down after about an hour of the fleet drifting aimlessly. Race 3 finally got under way in the lightest 'wind' of the weekend, as the falling tide reached its strongest.
Several boats had disappeared ashore by this point, and nobody could really blame them. Lunn/Blackburn followed by team Honnor again floated round least slowly; Young/Geddes stealthily took third in the race but were unable to overhaul Watson/Mowl for overall position.
Congratulations to Lunn/Blackburn on their win, thanks to the host club for a good job in very testing circumstances.
See event photos
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Crew | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | 23306 | Mark Lunn | Steve Blackburn | Leigh and Lowton | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 2 | 22619 | Martin Honnor | Abigail Honnor | Ogston | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 3 | 21646 | Emma Watson | Izzy Mowl | TSC | DNC | 3 | 4 | 7 |
| 4 | 22114 | Loz Young | Ellie Geddes | TSC | 5 | 5 | 3 | 8 |
| 5 | 22901 | Paul Young | Alex Homer | Midland | 6 | 4 | 7 | 10 |
| 6 | 22096 | Ian Ainsworth | Cathleen Schwarzlose | TSC | 4 | 8 | DNC | 10 |
| 7 | 22199 | Peter Middlemiss | Ailsa Redpath | TSC | 9 | 7 | 5 | 12 |
| 8 | 21940 | Lorry Young | Val Steavenson | St Mary’s Loch | 7 | 6 | 6 | 12 |
| 9 | 22695 | Alan Baker | Caroline Kelly | TSC | 3 | DNC | DNC | 15 |
| 10 | 20007 | Peter Wilkes | David Barnett | TSC | 8 | 9 | DNC | 17 |
| 11 | 19897 | Ken Knapton | Steve Brewis | TSC | 10 | DNC | DNC | 22 |