Spring Warm Up open meeting at Sutton Bingham Sailing Club

Sam and Megan Pascoe win the Sutton Bingham Spring Warm Up © Phil Godfrey

Adrian Neal wins the award for top SBSC sailor at the Sutton Bingham Spring Warm Up © Phil Godfre

33 boats took to the water for the 3 race 2015 Sutton Bingham "Spring Warm Up" open meeting. This year, the event was run in parallel with the local inter-club challenge matches against Castle Cove SC and Lyme Regis SC.

All three clubs fielded extremely strong teams and the huge significance of this event was underlined with no fewer than 5 past and present World and National Champions being spotted out on the water demonstrating their skills.

Race 1 was set with a SW oriented windward/leeward (with chicane!) course in a shifting & gusty F3. Being early in the season and with so much (club pride & reputation) at stake, it was clear the blood was pumping and adrenaline levels were running high. This together with port bias at the pin and starboard bias at the committee boat, the first start was always going to be "challenging"..... and the inevitable 'first start' general recall had to be signalled.

Race officer Tim Robertson swiftly had the fleet regrouped & got everyone away at the second attempt. Sam and Megan Pascoe (CCSC) showed great pace in their Merlin Rocket getting into clear air promptly and reaping the rewards with a 5 second (corrected time) win over the very quick Firefly of Jono and Sarah Pank (CCSC) in second. Sam Barker (CCSC) rounded out the top 3 in his Laser radial.

As lunch was taken, the wind started to swing to the NW (as forecast) and the course for Race 2 was altered accordingly. Considerable indigestion was experienced at the leeward mark on lap 1 with Solos, lasers, Streaker, Blaze, Scorpion, Merlin & D-Zero all calling for Mark Room simultaneously and large place gains/losses were experienced by some competitors. The benefits of early clear air were again demonstrated as Sam & Megan successfully navigated the changed course to take their second win of the day from Jono and Sarah in the Firefly (by 30 seconds this time) with Tim and Sarah Parsons (LRSC) in their immaculate Scorpion third. Adrian Neal (SBSC) kept these 3 (2 man) boats honest with a handy fourth place for the home club in his Solo.

Race 3 saw the wind continued to swing right (and drop) making both tactical and strategic moves tricky. However, Sam & Megan used their obvious talent and Merlin's speed to score a third straight win with Tim & Sarah Parsons in 2nd, Sam Barker in 3rd and the Fireball of Allan Tyler and his crew Cameron Moss (making his debut in a trapeze harness) from LRSC coming in 4th.

Special mention must be given to the younger sailors in particular Andrew Frost, who battled well against the "big boys" to come in a very creditable 8th overall in his RS Tera and also Emma Bishop (Laser 4.7), Kelsey Green (Laser Pico) and Jacob Stow (Laser Radial) who all sailed really well to support their clubs.

Sutton Bingham SC Commodore Andy Roxburgh thanked all (sailors and staff) for making the event such a success and echoed everyone's feelings that a great day's sailing and racing had been enjoyed by all.

Inter-Club Triangle Challenge:

1st Castle Cove
2nd Sutton Bingham
3rd Lyme Regis

Banbury Chaser Trophy (SBSC Vs LRSC match) was won back by Sutton Bingham

Embedded Scorpion Event:

1st Tim & Sarah Parsons (2014)
2nd Jo Mahy & Ian Dooley (1907)
3rd James & Leigh Bishop (892)

Open Meeting:

Sutton Bingham Spring Warm Up - photo © Saffron Gallagher