Solo Open at Starcross Yacht Club
by Paul Kelley 6 Aug 2021 17:13 BST
31 July 2021
Starcross Solo Open © R M Fryer
With the rapidly growing Solo fleet now further increasing in numbers this year, Starcross Yacht Club located on the River Exe in Devon, held its first Solo Open since the very early eighties.
We were absolutely delighted to welcome all of our 13 visitors on the day, which including the SYC fleet, totalled 21 boats racing over three races. The racing was superbly and smoothly run by the Race Officer Tony Blackmore and his AOOD Russ Gibbs, in challenging wind conditions, not to mention a fast outgoing tide by the end of the first race.
The wind was predominantly from the North West, with a shifting pattern generally favouring the left side of the course but at one time, the wind backed round to the West very briefly for the second race. The Race Committee thus moved the course round to the left, only for the wind to veer back to the NW. Eventually though, the wind direction settled down, although the pressure was rather up and down, raging from around 17 knots, down to 5 knots during the first beat of the second race. As you can imagine, all this made for a very interesting, challenging and possibly, rather frustrating day on the water for some of the fleet, not to mention the Committee Boat and Safety Boat crews.
The first race, using a triangle/ sausage format, started with a general recall, with fleet getting away cleanly on the second attempt. After some very keen and close and compact racing, with always a place to be won or lost, it was SYC sailor Paul Bartlett, who by the end, eventually came out on top, wining from two other SYC sailors, Paul Kelley and Alistair Glen in that order.
The second race started cleanly first time, although the wind decided to have rest and dropped to around 5 knots but then filled in again from the NW increasing to around 10/12 knots by the time the fleet had reached the top mark. After much duelling throughout the fleet, it was again Paul Bartlett who took line honours; this time from Shaun Welsh from Torpoint Mosquito Sailing Club on the last leg to the finish, who in turn was followed home in third place by SYC sailor Simon Greenslade.
With the fleet pushing the boundary of the start line again, the last race saw another recall and given the fast out going tide, the Race Officer introduced the dreaded Black Flag and we all know what that means. Luckily though, everyone behaved and managed to keep on the right side of the line and the fleet got away for the final time. Another intense and tactical race ensued down through the fleet and at the end, Paul Bartlett sailing consistently, completed his score with a hatric of wins. Paul Kelley came home in second, just in front of Mark Phillips from Coombe Cellers in third.
At the end of the day, it was Paul Bartlett who was the popular and undisputed overall winner, sailing his brand new Winder Mk2. Paul Kelley took the runners up slot, with Alistair Glenn taking third overall. As you can see from the points score, three boats finished with a total nett score of 9 points. Shaun Welsh from Torpoint, took 4th overall as his score counted a second place, with 5th and 6th places overall being taken by Mark Phillips and Simon Greenslade both also having the same nett 9 points score but it was Phillips who took 5th, beating Greenslade in the last race. Our much esteemed Class Membership Secretary, John Steels, finishing in 7th with a score of 13 points and a 4th place in the last race. Ian Bartlett, Charlie Dunn, Garry Milton, Adrian Griffin, Kim Furness and Roger Gibb all finished within one or two points of each other, which just shows how good and close the racing had been.
The Starcross fleet were thrilled to welcome so many visiting sailors to our first open meeting in many years and we very much hope we will see them all return next year. We certainly enjoyed their company and racing against them and everyone agreed that it had been a great days Solo sailing and racing on the River Exe.
Overall Results:
1st Paul Bartlett - 2pts
2nd Paul Kelley - 4pts
3rd Alistair Glen - 7pts
4th Shaun Welsh - 9pts
5th Mark Phillips - 9pts
6th Simon Greenslade - 9pts
7th John Steels - 13pts
8th Ian Bartlett - 15pts
9th Charlie Dunn - 16pts
10th Gary Morton - 17pts