Thornbury Sailing Club Regatta
by Paul Craig 13 Jul 2007 14:54 BST
7-8 July 2007
This year's annual Thornbury SC Regatta attracted a turnout of 62 boats over the weekend of July 7th-8th. With the weather over the previous 2-3 weeks doing its best to fool us into thinking it was still February, everyone was pleasantly surprised on Saturday morning when we were greeted with a F2-3 and sunshine.
In the fast handicap race 1, the Spitfire of Stuart Ford and Alison Winterton (TSC) screamed away to record an easy win, while the RS700s changed places each lap. In race 2 with an ever increasing breeze with gusts of 30kts, Ford & Winterton retired leaving the 700s to battle it out, Martin Sully (TSC) victorious thanks to watching Paul Craig(TSC) capsize on the last gybe, then deciding to drop his kite and ware around (chicken!).
In the slow handicap fleet the battle was between the Laser Radials of Andrew Smith (Netley) & Rory Caird (Chew), and the Toppers of Tom Sully (TSC) & Tom Macgregor (TSC) and while the wind was light the toppers took the advantage. For the second race however the balance swung in the favour of the Radials. In the cruiser fleet the long race up the river with the tide favoured the slower boats, flying symmetric kites. The upwind leg back to the finish enabled Gordon Craig in his Hanse 300 to pull out enough to take the win. In the Fireball fleet Colin & Derek Jarvis (Portishead) showed their dominance taking both races.
Day 2 dawned with a perfect F3-4 and clear skies, and in the fast handicap the RS800 of John Harvey and Adrian Garland (TSC) left the rest of the fleet behind. In the slow handicap the consistency of Nick & Hannah Smith in their Miracle and Adam Underwood in his topper paid off as they took 1st & 2nd. In the Cruiser fleet the J80 of Bill Beere sorted out their kite work to take the win.
The Fireball fleet saw several new additions including Ian Priest and Mike Stoddart (South Cerney) who took a race win however the three race wins from the Jarvis’s, gave them an easy victory. On the Sunday the Lasers raced as a fleet as part of the Wessex traveller series.
The three races were extremely tight but John Teague’s (Bristol Corinthian) two first places enabled him to discard a 5th place to take the overall win. Local sailor Aaron Lowe was unfortunate, while leading the fleet comfortably in the final race he put his knee through the cockpit sides, and with wind against tide his boat quickly took on water, and he could do nothing but watch the fleet sail past.
Overall Results:
Saturday
Fast Handicap:
1st RS700, M.Sully (TSC)
2nd RS700, P. Craig (TSC)
3rd RS300, P. Underwood (TSC)
Slow Handicap:
1st Laser Radial, A. Smith (Netley)
2nd Topper, T. Sully (TSC)
3rd Laser Radial, R. Caird (CVLSC)
Cruisers:
1st Hanse 300, G. Craig (TSC)
2nd Achilles 840, T. Bowden
3rd Achilles 24, M. Ford
Sunday
Fast Handicap:
1st RS800, J. Harvey & A. Garland (TSC)
2nd RS700, M. Sully (TSC)
3rd RS700, P. Craig (TSC)
Slow Handicap:
1st Miracle, N. Smith & H. Smith (TSC)
2nd Topper, A. Underwood (TSC)
3rd Wayfarer, N. White & Crew (TSC)
Fireballs:
1st 14100 C. Jarvis & D. Jarvis (Portishead)
2nd 14361 A. Shaw & J. Line (Portishead)
3rd 14789 R. Lankester & J. Rickards (Bristol Corinthian)
Lasers:
1st 146894 J. Teague (Bristol Corinthion)
2nd 168907 J. Wood (Avon)
3rd J. Lapes (Bristol Corinthian)