Phantom Tempera Eastern Series at Southwold Sailing Club

The Tempera Tech Eastern Series landed in Southwold over the Bank Holiday weekend, sharing the water with the Javelin National Championships.

Early arrivals on the Friday night were able to sample the local Adnams brew with pints of the appropriately named “Regatta” flowing freely.

Saturday's forecast seemed to differ depending which website you looked at, but as it turned out, the ever accurate windguru was spot on with its forecast for a NW F4 to decrease and swing round to the SW through the day. The shifty wind and strong tide making for a tough day on the water.

First out of the blocks in race 1 was local boy Jez Taylor who led around the first lap before being reeled in by James Jarvey, James Case and new boy Matt House. Jarvey set about building an unassailable lead over the next 2 laps while Matt House found himself clear in 2nd, behind these 2 a group of 5 battled around the final lap for 3rd, with Case, Taylor, Feilden, Wayling and Morley all rounding the final leeward mark together. Up the final beat in a decreasing and shifty breeze Case took 3rd, followed by Wayling and Taylor.

By the start of race 2 the wind had swung to the North, giving a beat against the tide, Jarvey showed great speed again to beat Wayling with Case 3rd just ahead of Taylor in 4th and Chris Roberts 5th.

Race 3 saw the wind swing further to the East and after watching a javelin port tack the fleet from a biased pin end it was no surprise 5 minutes later to find 12 Phantoms fighting it out for the pin, resulting in the first general recall of the day.

With the round the ends rule in force for the next start the fleet behaved themselves and got away to a clean start, albeit again bunched at the pin end. With everyone arriving at the windward mark on port chaos ensued and Wayling and Miller sneaked through to take the early lead. With the breeze continuing to play tricks and the tide on the turn there were plenty of opportunities for place changes, Jarvey’s perfect day was spoiled as his kicker broke and he found himself slipping back down the pack. Wayling held his lead until the finish, followed by Roberts, with Andy Gregory 3rd, Taylor 4th and House 5th.

This gave Wayling the overnight lead ahead of Jarvey, Case, Taylor and House.

The Saturday night social had a Caribbean theme, with rum punch, and a prize for the worst shirt. The Phantom’s cleaned up in the prizes with James Case winning the prize for best (worst shirt) and Marcus Ingram winning best Hawaiian shirt, the rest of the evening will go down in Eastern Series history, with the introduction of the “yellow t-shirt” leader's jersey.

Sunday dawned with more than a few sore heads and a stiff southerly breeze, after a short postponement to allow enough tide on the slipway to launch, the fleet put to sea, to be greeted by starkly different conditions to the previous day. The strong wind against tide, producing some great waves and surfing conditions. Survival became the order of the day and in the only race possible only half the fleet managed to finish. Wayling won from Miller, Roberts, Jarvey and House. Almost everyone capsized at one point or another, some more spectacular than others. Thankfully the only major damage was a broken rudder for James Case on a day that a Javelin pitchpoled!

With racing abandoned for the day the final results saw John Wayling take yet another Eastern Series win, with James Jarvey 2nd and Chris Roberts 3rd. At the prizegiving John Wayling thanked the club and sailors for a great weekend on and off the water. All participants received an Adnams goodie bag.

Overall Results:

Next it’s the Nationals at Felixstowe Ferry, on September 5th – 7th. The Eastern Series moves to Minnis Bay, Kent on September 20th/21st with the series finale at Hickling Broad on October 11th/12th.