Sailingfast 420 Scottish Championship at Helensburgh Days 1-3
by Peter Collyer 16 Aug 2017 13:06 BST
13-19 August 2017
sailingfast 420 Scottish Championship at Helensburgh © Mike Cattermole
After two days of pre-event training with coaches Neil Marsden and Duncan Hepplewhite, competition got underway on Tuesday with the first 5 races of the Scottish Open Championships.
The fleet was greeted by perfect conditions on the race course, with the wind averaging 15 knots for most of the day and the Oscar flag flying, meaning teams had the freedom to maximise the athletic energy they could convert into boat speed.
Coach Marsden, never one to hold back from being put to the test by his young proteges, joined the fleet with experienced 420 helm (but rookie crew) Alex Hughes on the wire, and this pair wasted no time in hitting the front and winning Race 1. However, they did not have it all their own way in what turned out to be a day of high-quality racing with many position changes and race wins for Calum Bell/Josh Hale, Bertie Fisher/Ollie Hawkins and Calum Cook/Johnny Thompson.
It was consistency that won the day though with the standout performance provided by the only mixed team on the water, Adele Young and Dan Burns, who finished the afternoon counting four 2nd places and discarding a 3rd to lead by 3 points from Marsden and Hughes.
The Scottish Open concludes on Wednesday (with even more wind promised) before racing for the National Championships takes place from Thursday to Saturday, all punctuated by a great social calendar provided by the host club, where we are all waiting to see if Coach Marsden takes part in Thursday evening's highland games with as much enthusiasm as he does the sailing!
More information at gbr420.uk