Suntouched D-Zero National Championship at Highcliffe SC - Day 2
by Paul Jefferies 25 Jun 2016 21:32 BST
24-26 June 2016
Day 2 of the Suntouched D-Zero National Championship at Highcliffe © Suntouched Sailboats
After the epic conditions of day 1, day 2 dawned with a much lighter breeze and Christchurch Bay looking much smoother much to the delight of the pond sailor contingent of the fleet.
With Suntouched Sailboats and generous fleet members did a great job with helping to get those who managed to break things yesterday back on the water (it won't buff out but some gelcoat filler and liberal sanding will do one sailor for now...and a new bottom mast and loan sail will do for the other). Aside from that there was the usual bimbling and tweaking to kill the time between breakfast and the first race of the day.
With VR Sport Media and the official Highcliffe photographer both out on the water today there was nowhere to hide for the fleet. More on this later on.
Race 3 saw a change at the sharp end of the fleet with Paul Scullion from Restronguet SC showing everyone the way home, followed by Stuart Jones, with John Aston from Grafham showing some good speed to complete the podium. Overnight leader Ian Morgan could only manage seventh so perhaps he may have to work harder to stay out the front.
Race 4, and with the breeze building Ian found his form again to finish second to Paul with Rob Lennox from Barnt Green making an appearance at the front to complete the podium.
Race 5 and with the breeze building more and the waves getting bigger as we had wind over tide it was set to be the hardest of the day for many. Ian now revelling in the conditions posted another bullet with Rob coming home second and Iain Horlock completing the podium. Overnight second place man Gaz Henshall had an indifferent day by his standards from day 1 and slipped down the leaderboard.
So the overnight top 3 is now Ian Morgan, Paul Scullion and Gaz Henshall. The top two seem to be pulling away from the fleet with the final podium position up for grabs between Gaz, Rob and Iain who are separated by two points.
Forecast for tomorrow is for similar conditions to today but with wind with tide the sea state should be flatter than today.
At the time of writing the fleet is gathered at the clubhouse for dinner followed by the AGM.