Phantom Eastern Series Open at Fishers Green Sailing Club

Phantoms at Fishers Green © Michael Yannakoyorgos

Phantoms at Fishers Green © Michael Yannakoyorgos

Phantoms at Fishers Green © Michael Yannakoyorgos

Five visitors joined the 5 local boats for the September Fishers Green open - new venue for the Eastern Series this year.

With a very light forecast on the Saturday and the weed infested waters it was always going to be taxing for all as the first race started in the north corner of the lake with a northerly breeze. First round the top mark was local helm Ken Daniels followed by Paul Bidwell, both of which seemed to have mastered the trick of sailing with half rudder earlier than everyone else. Ken unfortunately went round the leeward mark the wrong way and let Paul and Matthew House (who by now was also getting used to sailing with little rudder) through. These two fought for the lead with Matthew eventually getting through and taking the bullet.

Race 2 got underway after a big shift sent the breeze to the east and race officer Jon Steward reset the line and course. This time Nick Yannakoyorgos got to the windward mark first and led for nearly two laps before being overhauled (at the same time) by Chris Roberts to windward and Paul Bidwell to leeward. Chris held on to the finish to take the victory.

There was not enough wind at this stage and everyone was getting a bit tired of the weed issues so it was unanimously agreed to call it a day and return ashore for tee/coffee and and cakes followed by a barbecue before settling down to watch the rugby on the big screen (whilst nearly drinking the bar dry!).

Sunday morning dawned with very little breeze despite a good forecast: Eventually Chris Roberts arrived and told us all to stop dithering and get on the water. By the start time of the first race the wind had settled in and race officer Chris Hill set a short course in the same north corner of the lake.

The Phantoms went off first (before the other club race starts) and completed two laps of the course before coming across a fleet start at the end of the second lap. Getting tangled up in the traffic seem to help some and hinder others: one of those who got it right was Graham Dale-Jones who stayed away from the club start line and pulled away with a comfortable lead to take the win from Chris Roberts and Paul Bidwell.

The course was extended a fair bit for the next two races as the wind has really settled in from the east. This time Matthew House got into an early lead occasionally challenged by Chris Roberts with Graham and Nick closely behind. The choice for the upwind leg seemed to be to either short tack up the middle staying in clear water or to take the shifts but risk drifting on to weeded areas of the lake: neither option was obviously better, so there was a lot of position changing in the last race too with Matthew in the lead and Paul, Chris and Nick all very close together finishing in that order.

Overall Results: