International Canoe Open at Oxford Sailing Club
by Phil Allen, Hugh de Longh & Andy Biden 3 Nov 2007 09:29 GMT
27-28 October 2007
Oxford SC saw a depleted fleet of 16 boats rounded the 2007 season off, with the world championships boats had already sailed to warmer climates.
Saturday saw a gusty, shifty force four from the south west. As a result the race officer had to lay a relatively short course and rely on multiple rounds. All AC sailors found this testing with no time for a breather, either up or down wind and it was physically demanding.
Robin Wood won all the three races held back to back. The real racing was for the minor places with Gareth Caldwell showing good speed and consistency to come through and take three second places after some hard battles and could be a real threat to Woods domination in the future. Phil Allen scored a third, fourth and third and was always ready to capitalise on anybody’s mistakes. Steve Bowen, struggling to get in the groove with new kit had a fourth, third and fourth.
Other notable contenders, Rob Michael with new boat but lacking time on the water shows he is still a force to be reckoned with and Rob Bell also with less time on the water than he would have liked this year. Tony Robertshaw and Dave Timpson both had inspired moments but Timpson hade gear failure and retired from one race as did Ben Wood. New to the AC fleet but not Canoes is Max Reid showing plenty of speed up wind but is in the very steep learning curve when going down wind.
Meanwhile, the battle was between Bob Austin and Hugh de Iongh in his newly imported French boat. In the first race, Bob Austin rig tension went, so he had to retire, and in the third race Hugh de Iongh’s kicker went, causing another retirement. The second race was closely fought, but Bob’s better tacking enabled him to pull away.
Sunday morning saw so much wind and driving rain it was a very easy decision not to sail so Saturday's results stood.
This years travellers went to Bob Austin in the IC, Gareth Caldwell in the AC and Andy Paterson in the DC.
Overall Results:
Asymmetric Canoes
1st Robin Wood
2nd Gareth Caldwell
3rd Phil Allen
Development Canoes
1st Bob Austin
2nd Hugh de Longh