Great North Asymmetric Challenge at Bassenthwaite Sailing Club

by Mik Chappell 24 Apr 2017 10:39 BST 22-23 April 2017

Great North Assymetric Challenger (GNAC) at Bassenthwaite © William Carruthers

This year's event attracted twenty three entrants from twelve Northern and Scottish Clubs. Bassenthwaite was fortunate to enjoy the calm before the forecast storm with sunny and reasonably warm weather coupled to light to medium strength winds.

Four races for dinghies with asymmetric rigs were held on each of the sailing days. These soon developed into a contest for the Challenge win between the RS400's of Chris Pickles/Matt Sharman from Delph and Mark Somerville/Joe Roberts from Bass. The Delph boat led from the Home Club entry overnight.

For the following positions it was, again, two crews from the same clubs but, this time in RS200s. The Delph boat of Martin and Barbara Smith led Bass' Robin and Erin Dawson after the initial day's racing.

Sunday brought marginally stronger winds but similar top of the fleet race results. In the first race Somerville/Roberts arrived too early at the line and were forced behind the rest of the fleet until they could cross near the port end. This gave them their worst result of a seventh which became one of their discards. With no result below a third Pickles / Sharman were now heading for outright victory which they duly took. In contrast, the Dawsons had a better second day and pulled ahead of their immediate rivals to take third overall.

Next in the standings was the Vareo of Bass' Mike Cowan who finished day two with an excellent outright race win. Faye Caswell from Yorkshire Dales with Tom Squires were next up. They finished as leading lady helm ahead of Annandale's Elaine Ross and Liz Copeland, both in 200s.

Overall Results:

Pos	Class	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	PY	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Pts
1st	RS 400	703	Chris Pickles	Matt Sharman	Delph SC	942	3	1	1	1	3	1	1	2	7
2nd	RS 400	1082	Mark Somerville	Joe Roberts	Bassenthwaite SC	942	1	2	2	4	7	2	2	6.5	13
3rd	RS 200	1651	Robin Dawson	Erin Zoe Dawson	Bassenthwaite SC	1047	2	6	4	10	1	3	3	DNF	19
4th	RS 200	1068	Martin Smith	Barbara Smith	Delph	1047	5	5	3	2	2	7	14	6.5	23.5
5th	RS VAREO	103	Mike Cowan		Bassenthwaite SC	1085	7	3	9	8	13	5	5	1	29
6th	RS 200	1118	Faye Caswell	Tom Squires	Yorkshire Dales SC	1047	4	4	12	7	4	11	6	5	30
7th	RS 400	1161	Ben Robertson	Jenny Douglas	N/A	942	12	18	8	3	5	4	4	9	33
8th	RS 400	1401	Bill Kenyon	Steve Blackburn	Budworth SC	942	15.5	13	5	6	6	10	7	3	37
9th	RS 400	1003	David Moore	Ben Murrell	Blyth/YDSC	942	11	15	7	9	10	6	11	4	47
10th	RS 200	1195	Alex Leonard	Olivia Leonard	Bassenthwaite SC	1047	DNC	11	14	11	8	8	13	8	59
11th	RS 200	281	Phil Davenport	Josh Hunter	Bassenthwaite SC	1047	13	7	15	14	14	12	9	11	66
12th	RS 200	1167	Bernard Clark	Holly Monk	Bassenthwaite/Ripon SC	1047	14	9	13	16	9	9	16	14	68
13th	RS 200	691	Elaine Ross	Liz Copland	Annandale SC	1047	6	14	10	13	16	14	12	15	69
14th	RS 200	1092	Ethan Dawson	Ellie Clark	Bassenthwaite/Ripon SC	1047	10	12	11	15	17	16	8	13	69
15th	RS 200	1057	Alastair Duncan	David Lawson	Bassenthwaite SC	1047	8	8	16	19	15	13	DNC	DNC	79
16th	RS 400	669	Jacob Ainsworth	Kayleigh Roberts	South Shields SC	942	9	16	6	5	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	84
17th	RS 200	1076	Isabel Abbatt	Emily Ingham	Ullswater YC / Windermere School	1047	15.5	10	17	18	20	20	17	16	93.5
18th	RS 400	1155	Nick Holt	Derek Hill	Tynemouth	942	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	12	15	10	10	95
19th	RS FEVA XL	1066	Hazel Newport	Izzie Hunter	Bassenthwaite SC	1240	20	21	22	12	21	21	15	12	101
20th	K6	124	Mike Kneale	Katy Simpson	Chester	905	17	20	19	20	11	19	DNF	17	103
21st	RS 200	790	Ian Smith	Emily Clark	Leigh & Lowton SC	1047	18	17	18	17	18	18	DNC	DNC	106
22nd	RS 400	810	Richard Fahey			942	19	19	21	22	22	17	18	18	112
23rd	RS 200	984	Sophie Cogger	Edward Russell	Ullswater	1047	21	22	20	21	19	22	19	19	119