Swordfish White Rose Bowl at West Riding Sailing Club

by John Gledhdill 31 May 2004 22:22 BST 29-31.05.04

The Swordfish White Rose Bowl, sponsored by Volvo, was held over the three days of the Spring Bank Holiday weekend. The event has been running since 1952. One or two old favourites were missing this year, but they were replaced by one or two Swordfish and sailors returning to the class to maintain the numbers of this venerable fleet.

The first two of the seven races were held on Saturday in promising conditions of sun and wind with the odd plane on the spinnaker reaches. There were wins for John and Jonathan Gledhill and visitor Brian Ruston from Hornsea SC sailing Steve Sharp's boat.

Gledhill took the honours again in Sunday morning's one and a half hour light airs marathon. With the wind dying further as the day progressed Ted Farrance with Julie Tree came on strongly to take two firsts to add to two earlier seconds.

Steve Sharp, back at the helm, won Sunday's only race, a gruelling drifter, before race officer Matt Cook abandoned for the day. A raft up at the final mark saw a frustrated Gledhill drop from 2nd to 5th while Farrance was wafted through from 4th to a trophy winning 2nd place.

Overall Results:

Pos	Boat Type	Sail No	Boat Name	Helm	Crew	Club	Pts
1st	Swordfish	202	Dinah	Ted Farrance	Julie Tree	West Riding SC	6
2nd	Swordfish	133	Giselle	John Gledhill	Jonathan Gledhill	West Riding SC	6
3rd	Swordfish	211	Sea Wolf	Steve Sharp	Brian Ruston	Hornsea SC	12
4th	Swordfish	169	Manana	Mike Wallace	Ellei Wrigglesworth	West Riding SC	12
5th	Swordfish	216	Early Bird	Alan Beecham	Malcolm McDonald	West Riding SC	14