South West Challenge Series 2017

Fierce winds for the Wimbleball Phantom Open © Emma Stevenson

The final event in the South West challenge series was the Wimbleball Beastie held on Sunday 19th March. The event lived up to its name, with a brisk westerly wind sending vicious gusts spiralling across the reservoir and funnelling along the valley.

37 entrants made it to the club perched high up on the eastern side of Exmoor and were rewarded with a stern three hour test of stamina and skill which left only 23 finishers! Race organiser, Tony Paine, used the whole length of the reservoir with a couple of tricky mark placements designed to keep traffic apart.

First off were the Laser 4.7s, followed by the Challenger trimaran which made light work of the conditions and quickly moved into the lead never to be challenged. Further back everybody struggled, with experts such as Iain Horlock, Supernova national champion being blown in, and Peter Barton in his Aero suffering three capsizes within 100 yards. As the race progressed it was clear nobody was going to catch the Challenger, but there was a close battle for next place with the Phantom of local sailor Simon Hawkes, Peter Barton and Iain Horlock all very close, but at the end, Simon Hawkes finished a good second, Peter Barton was overtaken by the Osprey of Terry Curtis in the final moments, and Iain Horlock was fifth.

A little further back in eighth place was the Fireball of Derek and Colin Jarvis from Portishead which when combined with his results of 13th and 2nd place in the Starcross Steamer and Roadford Rocket was sufficient to give him a total of 23 points, and a two point lead in the series over Simon Hawkes who had 16/7/2nd to count. Iain Horlock finished third with 25/5/5 to count. Andrew Frost from Sutton Bingham was a worthy winner of the junior trophy sailing in his RS Aero 5, with 44/19/11 to count.

So overall the series was indeed a decent challenge with particularly strong conditions at Roadford and then Wimbleball to test local sailors, who were prepared to brave adverse weather forecasts and was well supported by a good variety of classes, with Blazes and RS Aeros particularly strong, with RS racing providing charter boats at the last two venues.

Sadly the number of junior sailors has declined, but the demands of squad training makes it difficult to attend competitions like this as well. Very many thanks to all the clubs, and in especially John Donovans at Starcross for his work with the paperwork and results, their helpers, both on and off the water in tough conditions that has made the three events such as success. Full results will be on club websites soon.