Contender Open at Grimwith Sailing Club

Action from Round 6 of the Contender Series © Neil Ferguson

Action from Round 6 of the Contender Series © Neil Ferguson

A selection of the finest Contenderers arrived at Grimwith for round 6 of the Magic Marine Contender TT Series on 5/6 July.

Although the forecast for the weekend Nationally did not bode well, Grimwith dished up a fine variety of sailing conditions.

Tim Holden dominated from the start leading until his unsucessful navigation in rounding the wrong gybe mark resulted in his retirement. This left Matt Aston to hold off Ben Holden for line honours, with Chris Mitchell 3rd. The 2nd race was held in the building breeze and this time Tim made no mistakes, although he was run close by Rodger White and local hero Sandy Clapham in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Race3 provided some close 'nip and tuck' racing in the now quite shifty breeze. Tim managed to sqeeze in the at windward mark first and never looked. Behind him saw a continual wave of tacking and gybing duals around the course, eventually leaving Aston clear of Ben and Clapham. Following a respectable curry the previous evening, the wind had increased to a 3-4 !. This produced some champagne racing conditions. Local Neil Ferguson showed some great turns of speed when flat out on the wire, however it was Tim who again excelled around the course in Race4 and lead the fleet home with Aston 2nd and Ben 3rd.

Race 5, and Tim lead followed by Mitchell and Ferguson. A swim at the gybe mark by Mitchell and then Ferguson let Aston inside at the leeward mark for 2nd. Ben then pulled through for 3rd. In the last race decider Aston led from start to finish but Tim overhauled nephew Ben for 3rd, just behind Clapham, to secure the meeting. Many thanks to Grimwith SC, the Clapham hospitality and Magic Marine for a splendid weekend.

Overall Results: