Christchurch Harbour Interclub Series

Christchurch Harbour Interclub Series - Day 1

by Sarah Desjonqueres 19 Sep 2016 15:22 BST 18 September 2016

Christchurch Harbour Interclub Series day 1 © Sarah Desjonqueres

Still riding on the coattails of an Indian Summer, Christchurch Harbour sailors were blessed with glorious sunshine for the first two races of this year's Harbour Interclub series.

It was a beautiful sight to witness 33 dinghies of various classes and sail colours all jostling for position on the start line with all three competing clubs keen to top the results tables.

The wind was in a fickle mood however and for moments during the race gave up blowing completely only to come back with renewed vigour some minutes later. This fluctuation created some interesting position changes amongst the fleet, with some boats making up a fair amount of ground on the lead boats as they were carried down reaches on puffs that were yet to fill the sails of those in front.

The beat sent the fleet over toward Christchurch Priory leaving them a dead run back toward the gybe mark which had had been laid just to port of the channel. On such a glorious day there was a fair amount of traffic crossing the harbour and some tactical sailing was witnessed as the racing dinghies crossed paths with various incoming vessels.

After three fairly pedestrian rounds however, race 1 belonged to three Mudeford SC Lasers, with John Challener taking the top spot, followed in by Tim Reid and then Alan Dalziel in 3rd.

As fickle winds are wont to do, the wind direction had changed by the end of the 1st race, but Mudeford SC race team were quickly on it and after a rapid course tweak between races, the 2nd race got off to a clean start.

It was the Christchurch SC Finn sailors that lead the cluster of Lasers round the course this time round although with such little wind their lead was minimal. The slower boats were however certainly enjoying the weather and one helm was spotted doing some serious sunbathing down the reach.

At the end of race 2, with the weather beginning to change, there was a little switch around at the top, with Tim Reid taking the win, Christchurch SC's Ray New (Finn) in 2nd and John Challener taking 3rd.

Christchurch Harbour Interclub Series day 1 - photo © Sarah Desjonqueres

After two races the overall leader board sees Tim Reid leading, John Challener in 2nd place and Ray New sitting in 3rd. The next two races of the series are on 2nd October at 10am; will Highcliffe SC feature this time...?

Results after first day:

Pos	Helm & Crew	Club	Class	R1	R2	Pts
1	Tim Reid	Mudeford	Laser	2	1	3
2	John Challener	Mudeford	Laser	1	3	4
3	Ray New	Christchurch	Finn	5	2	7
4	Richard & Jamie Batten	Mudeford	Hartley 12 2S0	7	4	11
5	Richard Phillips	Christchurch	Finn	4	8	12
6	Tom Reid	Mudeford	Laser	6	7	13
7	Roy O'Callaghan	Mudeford	Laser	11	6	17
8	Andy Denison	Christchturch	Finn	9	9	18
9	Stuart Percival	Christchurch	Scow	14	5	19
10	Finn Gheury de Bray	Highcliffe	OK	8	12	20
11	Jack Acton	Christchurch	Radial	12	10	22
12	Drew Barnes	Christchurch	4.7	16	14	30
13	John Phelps	Highcliffe	Laser	13	17	30
14	Tony Lock	Christchurch	Finn	10	21	31
15	Graham Platt	Highcliffe	Laser	15	18	33
16	Lorrian Wells	Highcliffe	Laser	17	16	33
17	Geoff Harwood	Mudeford	Solo	23	11	34
18	Ian Pike & Sally Perry	Highcliffe	Comet Duo	19	15	34
19	Keith Hawkins	Highcliffe	Laser	18	19	37
20	Marion Cullingford	Christchurch	Radial	24	13	37
21	Alan Dalziel	Mudeford	Laser	3	35	38
22	Tania Tarrant	Highcliffe	Radial	20	20	40
23	Lisa Booth	Christchurch	Radial	21	20	41
24	Julie Sephton	Christchurch	Topper	25	25	50
25	Keith Barkway	Christchurch	Mirror 1S0	26	24	50
26	Russel New	Christchurch	RS Vision	28	22	50
27	Sue Haynes	Christchurch	4.7	22	28	50
28	Claire van Wingerden	Christchurch	4.7	27	27	54
29	Peter Nicholson & Mike Stagg	Mudeford	Urchin	32	23	55
30	John Duffell & Chris Blake	Mudeford	Hartley 12 2S0	30	26	56
31	Roy Smith	Mudeford	Cormorant	29	29	58
32	Ben Cobb	Christchurch	Topper	31	31	62
33	Julian & Tosh Browett	Christchurch	Laser 2	33	32	65