Scorpion End of Seasons at Poole Yacht Club

Downwind work during the Scorpion End of Seasons at Poole © Mike Millard

Pete Mitchell and Simon Forbes during the Scorpion End of Seasons at Poole © Mike Millard

Downwind work during the Scorpion End of Seasons at Poole © Mike Millard

With the 2014 Silver Scorpion series results already decided it was time for The final scorpion event of 2014, which was also the first event of the 2015 travellers circuit. This event gave us an insight into what 2015 holds for the Scorpion class with three times National champion Tom Jeffcoate returning to the sharp end of the fleet and Ryan and Hannah Buchanan showing promise despite destroying a number of ropes on the boat.

On Saturday the class endured two very light wind races. Race 1 and Barry "The Big Bad Wolf" Wolfenden stole the win from the young girly pairing of Helena Pugh and Libby Courage by choosing the biased end of the finish line. It was then a scramble for the next places as three boats finished within a couple of boat lengths of each other.

Race two and the wind had dropped away even more. Tom Jeffcoate and guest star crew MJ were leading until the final beat where Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and Pete Gray hit the right hand side of the course and escaped from the rest of the fleet. Mitchell just piped Gray on the line.

The race officer made a great call part of the way through the second race to shorten the course and send the fleet home to get ready for the Black tie evening dinner - including Silver Scorpion travellers prizegiving (winner for 2014 was Pete Gray and Rich Peppardine). At the end of the day the close racing and fluky conditions had left five boats tied for the lead on seven points.

Sunday morning dawned with several sore heads and with others feeding the fish! After a motivational pre race talk from mirror worlds coach Alex Hayman, Pete Mitchell found the "GO" button taking victory in two of the days races. This wrapped up the event but there was still all to play for in the other placings.

Tom and MJ and Pete Gray and Alex raced off to avoid writing this report, which is the reward for finishing in third place. Tom won this race which left Pete with the pen and paper! However as these two boats got distracted it left the door wide open for Nev Herbert to take his first race victory in the Scorpion Class.

Thanks to Poole Yacht Club for hosting a fantastic 3 course dinner and evening entertainment, along with some close racing in testing conditions. The Silver Scorpion fixtures are now in place for the 2015 season so please check the Scorpion website for further details. Look forward to seeing everybody on the water in 2015!

Overall Results:

Windward mark jostling during the Scorpion End of Seasons at Poole - photo © Mike Millard