Magic Marine RS Vareo Grand Prix at the Alton Water Sailing Club Regatta
by Nick Crickmore on 9 Sep 2016
3-4 September 2016
RS Vareos at Alton Water © James Head Photography
Day One
Four races were completed on the first day with separate starts for the RS Vareo in the club's regatta. The race team made good use of the whole lake with alternating trapezoid / sausage laps. Racing started in light to moderate wind with some interesting shifts and gusts and glorious sunshine.
Race 1: Luke Fisher (V407) got ahead on the first leg thanks to a left shift and remained ahead while Nick Crickmore (V165) and Mark Smith (V565) battled for second. Nick eventually pulled clear and Richard Holmes (V337) caught up with Mark. These two then had such a close contest for third that they both lost track of the lap count and set off for the finish prematurely.
Race 2: Nick's turn to lead but Luke managed to shake free of the pack gradually catching up and passing on the last run as nick failed to keep sufficient cover.
After lunch the skies clouded and the wind picked up continuing to build through both races.
Race three: There was a slight delay waiting for Luke to get to the start line followed by a close race all round, Mark losing by capsize, Nick winning thanks to finding some extra speed offwind.
Race four: Nick's turn to capsize giving Luke line honours for the third time in 4 races, a comfortable margin with just 3 more races scheduled for tomorrow and a forecast of even more wind.
Day Two
The forecast strong winds arrived on schedule to give some thrills and spills for those who elected to sail today.
3 RS Vareos joined the start with the depleted RS200 fleet for 2 races on the more familiar windward / leeward course now that the wind direction had changed to blow along the longest section of the lake.
Luke revelled in the conditions winning both races, Nick put up a good fight in both leading for the first 2 laps of race 6 but ultimately failing by way of capsize in both - perhaps he needs a heavier centreboard?
Mark seized his chance to pass Nick whilst inverted in race 5, only to lose out on the next upwind by going into irons.
The event winner with an impressive 5 wins in 6 races was Luke Fisher, 2nd Nick Crickmore and third Mark Smith.
Overall Results:
1st Luke Fisher (Emberton Park SC) 5pts
2nd Nick Crickmore (Waveney & Oulton Broad SC) 9pts
3rd Mark Smith (Brightlingsea SC) 17pts
4th Richard Holmes (Hickling Broad SC) 24pts