P&B Streaker Southern Paddle Open at Bough Beech Sailing Club

P&B Streaker Southern Paddle at Bough Beech © Nigel Fordyce

P&B Streaker Southern Paddle at Bough Beech © Nigel Fordyce

12 Streakers gathered for the first P&B Southern Paddle Open meeting of 2015 at Bough Beech SC. Greeted by strong winds and sunshine, the day promised plenty of action.

Race one got underway, with the Streakers starting behind Contenders and Phantoms, on a shorter course. Ian Whitfield (1900) was first around the windward mark, closely followed by Ian Bradley (1817), new comer Chris Abela (1902) and Matt Whitfield (1901). By the leeward mark Bradley had passed Whitfield Snr for the lead with Whitfield Jnr now in 3rd. A strong beat by Whitfield Jnr saw him in 2nd by the Windward mark with Veronica Falat (1829) joining the action at the front at the expense of Abela, who is still finding his feet in the class. A close fight continued for the rest of the race with Bradley taking the bullet, with Whitfield Jnr in 2nd, Falat 3rd and Whitfield Snr 4th.

Race 2 was sailed back to back with race 1, and this time Ian Bradley got to the windward mark first, with another new comer, and fast starter, Chris Hatcher (1720) hot on his heels. Whitfield Snr was 3rd, Falat 4th and Whitfield Jnr 5th, at least until the 2nd mark where he thought it would be a good idea to inspect the underside of his hull and the temperature of the water. Close racing continued up front with Whitfield Snr and Falat keeping pressure on Bradley till the finish. Bradley took the bullet again, this time with Whitfield Snr in 2nd and Falat once again in 3rd.

After a break for lunch, Race 3 started on the same course. Bradley again took honours at the first mark with Hatcher, Whitfield Jnr and Abela in hot pursuit. It didn't take long for Whitfield Jnr to find his way to 2nd place and start putting the pressure on Bradley. Meanwhile Whitfield Snr, who started last, hooked up an excellent lift on the 3rd beat to lift himself to third. And that was how its stayed till the finish, Bradley taking the bullet from Whitfield Jnr in 2nd and Whitfield Snr in 3rd.

Although Streaker opens are usually 3 races, the meeting at Bough Beech has 4, being part of a larger event and so race 4 started soon after race 3 had finished. Bradley once again rounded the windward mark first with Whitfield Snr, Hatcher and Falat in hot pursuit. Both Falat and Whitfield Snr had the opportunity to remove Whitfield Jnr from 2nd place overall and were certainly capitalising on his poor start. Bradley continued on to win, making it four from four with Falat, Hatcher and Whitfield Snr battling for 2nd. Falat eventually came out on top, with Hatcher 3rd and Whitfield Snr a close 4th.

At the end of the day, Ian Bradley took the overall win, with Falat in 2nd having taken advantage of the lack of consistency from Whitfield Jnr who finished up 3rd overall. Whitfield Snr took 4th overall and a bottle of red for his troubles with newcomer Chris Hatcher taking 5th and a lovely pink Streaker Burgee courtesy of the Streaker Class Owners Association.

The next meeting for the Streaker Class is for both the Sail Register Northern Paddle and P&B Southern Paddle at Tamworth SC on March 21st.