P&B Solo Inland Championships at Rutland Sailing Club

A good breeze and sunshine for the Solo Inlands at Rutland © Mike Shaw / www.fotoboat.com

A good breeze and sunshine for the Solo Inlands at Rutland © Mike Shaw / www.fotoboat.com

The 2008 Solo Inland Championships were held over the weekend of 13/14/15th June and hosted by Rutland SC with sponsorship from Pinnell & Bax.

The Solo association arrived on Friday for a training day with Solo Class Coaches and internationally renowned coach Cathy Foster. Group exercises and trouble-shooting sessions with individuals and their boats were held during the day for the 28 attendees.

Saturday morning dawned bright with a steady stream of competitors from all parts of the UK and a contingent of 5 from Holland swelling the turnout to 107 entrants.

With the association having invested time in educating Solo sailors on Rule 42, the decision was taken to have an Umpire at the event. The education process must have paid off as the Umpire had very little business with only a handful of penalties awarded over the 2 days.

With a good breeze across the lake, Rutland race officer, Ralph Tingle set a series of Olympic courses in the main body of the lake.

Race one started in a north-westerly force 3 with the majority of the fleet deciding to start at the committee boat end but over-eagerness led to a general recall and a black flag for the restart. Going up the middle did not pay on the first round, with the leaders coming from the left hand side of the course. The race was won by Tony Cooper with David McGregor 2nd, Neil Wilkinson 3rd and Tjebbe Swart 4th with the breeze freshening to force 5 by the end.

Race 2 was started as soon as a squall which allegedly peaked at 35 knots had passed and the force 3 had returned. Richard Pye made the pin end start and stayed left up the first beat to round the top mark ahead of Geoff Henstridge and Steve Ede. After the gybe mark the chasing pack went high, allowing Pye to consolidate his lead and pull even further ahead as the fight for second place continued. Pye maintained his lead to the finish with Swart driving through on the final beat by going low while Ian Houston snatched third by going to the right This left Tjebbe Swart the overnight leader with two good results.

The third race on Sunday morning was started in a light NW wind, with no clear side favoured before the off. Those that went left eventually found more pressure, and it was Charlie Cumbley from Teign Corinthian who rounded the windward mark first, followed by Richard Pye and Mike Ball. Charlie and Richard held on to their positions to finish 1st and 2nd, with Stuart Hydon coming through for 3rd and Godfrey Clark taking 4th.

In the last moments of the countdown for the start of Race 4, the race was postponed due to a change in wind direction. The fleet then waited while the breeze, despite increasing in strength a little, became ever more shifty in direction, ranging from SW (clubhouse end) to its original NW making the setting of a fair start line for over 100 boats virtually impossible. After nearly two hours of moving marks around the lake, the dreaded three sounds were heard and the fleet headed home and by late afternoon the moored craft were actually pointing NNE.

With all three race results counting, the 2008 Inland Champion was named as Neil Wilkinson with a consistent set of results over the weekend that gave him the title.

Pinnell & Bax were generous with their sponsorship gifts which were given to all the competitors taking part while the event leaders were awarded glassware.

Thanks to Mike Shaw of Fotoboat for being there to capture the action. Thanks to Rutland SC and the Race Management Team for hosting the event. And finally thanks to those sailors that contributed their aspect of the racing to compile this report!

Overall Results:

For the full results and information about the Solo Class see www.solosailing.org.uk