Harken 29er Grand Prix Round 7 at Royal Torbay Yacht Club

Harken 29er GP number 7 at Torbay © Paul Hammett

Harken 29er GP number 7 at Torbay © Paul Hammett

Harken 29er GP number 7 at Torbay © Paul Hammett

The Harken 29er Grand Prix (7th in the series) was at the Royal Torbay Yacht Club in Torquay on the 8th/9th July and we had a fantastic weekend with 33 boats and 66 sailors.

We had some great courses set by the race committee who had to manage some very challenging conditions. The weekend got off to a tricky start on the Saturday with shifty light sailing conditions. In one race, the wind shifted a full 180 degrees, as the sea breeze fought the gradient wind. Later in the afternoon the wind picked up for some great sailing conditions. On the Sunday, the racing was postponed in the morning until the sea breeze came in. The wind was light again on the Sunday and the sailing was highly tactical. We got four good races in throughout both days.

While shifty winds like these always create volatile scoring the solution is to run as many races as possible to even out the good and bad luck. Race Officer Bill Butcher did an excellent job to get a full series in and the discard was there to allow any mishaps. The overall winners, despite not winning a race and racking up a 20th in the first race, then rattled off seven top 7 results to take the win by one point – proving that consistency counts!

The first race was won by Charlotte/Dan from Bella/Anna, Dan/Fin took race 2 from Charlotte/Dan and then Hannah/Nat took races 3 and 4 from Nick/Billy and Bella/Ella respectively. At the end of day 1 Bella/Ella led by a decent margin as most of the other contenders carried a bad one – not least Nick/Billy with a 20th in race 1 and Youth Champions JJ/James a 16th.

Dan/Fin started Sunday with a 1,1 in races 5 and 6 putting themselves in contention with Jessie/Jess and Nick/Billy taking the 2nd places. A few of the front runners founds snakes with Bella/Ella a 12th in race 6, Charlotte/Dan a BFD in race 5. Race 7 saw new faces at the front with Morgan /Hakan taking the bullet from Charlotte/Dan then Nick/Billy – who were steadily accumulating an impressive series - 3rd - with again some snakes for the some of the pace setters. In Race 8 JJ/James took the bullet from Charlotte/Dan who finished strongly from the BFD with a 3,2,2.

However, the Grand Prix was won by Nick Robins and Billy Vennis-Ozanne (27 points) after a solid 7,2,3,4 on Sunday followed by Bella Fellows and Anna Sturrock who were top ladies (28 points) with third place going to Daniel Lewis and Charlotte Ormerod (29 points) top mixed pair. Top Juniors were Morgan Archer and Hakan Digby in 8th overall.

It was a fabulous weekend's sailing in the sun and it was great to see so many new competitors joining the fleet.

A special mention and huge thank you should go to Barry Jobson who has been head of safety for the past few years and is now stepping down from his role, to Nia MacCallum for organising the launching and the sailors and Sailing Secretary Andre Venis-Ozanne who has delivered such a good series in 2016/2017.

Next up is the final the GP8 at Hayling Island Sailing Club 15/16th July.

Thank you to our sponsors Harken for your continued support!

Overall Results: