Phantom Open at Stone Sailing Club

With a forecast for light winds, the seventeen Phantom sailors gathered in hope of some sea breeze.

Race one got under way in sunshine and 8-10 knots of breeze. First round the windward mark was Northampton's Richard Nurse, closely followed by Royal Harwich's Bob Portway. The lack of time with tides showed for Richard who dropped down the fleet on the downward leg. Bob would make his own life harder by having to sail back downwind on the second beat after missing the gate. The race was to finish with Bob overlapped in a photo finish with Waveney and Oulton Broad's Ben Falat. It was so close that both sailor's opinion was different to the race officer.

Race two quickly got under way. With less tide it became more about pressure. At the end of the first lap it was Portway in the lead again, but he didn't get the bottom of the beat quite right, letting the local class chairman Phil Longley and Richard past, and there it stayed until the finish.

Race three, and with Richard once again first round the windward mark, the fleet once again compressed on the run, and it would be Bob and Andrew Hunt who would open up a gap leaving Bob in the lead overnight.

After a pleasant evening with pie and beer, day two started with a short delay in the hopes that the wind would build. The lead was all to play for as the overnight leader Bob Portway was otherwise engaged in Ajax racing up the coast.

Race 4 would once again see Richard Nurse first to the windward mark, this time overlapped with Graham Dale-Jones. But it would be all down to the first run with most of the fleet trying to stay out of the tide. A small group made a beeline down and undertook everyone. Phil Longley took the gun followed by Terry Crook.

The fifth and final race got away on its third attempt, with many caught a little line shy. A group of four got clean away, but still some close racing, with reigning Eastern Area Champion Bill Taylor taking the lead at the bottom of the last run.

The weekend was a high scoring event all round, and when the fleet came off the water nobody knew who had won. It was at prize-giving under much suspense that it was learnt that it had gone right down to that last leg of the last race. Bill had won the tie break and the weekend.

Overall Results: