Gul Winter Series at Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club

Gul Winter Series at Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club © Jon Buckler

Gul Winter Series at Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club © Jon Buckler

The third round of the Gul Winter Series 2009 (Plymouth) saw grey clouds and a bitterly cold easterly wind greet 25 enthusiastic dinghy sailors for races 5 & 6 of the 16 race series.

A gusty force four wind against a strong flood tide tested the ten starters in the fast handicap fleet with John Bower making frantic repairs to make a late start in his Phantom. First around the windward mark was the Hobie Tiger of Conrad Humphreys who made a rare mistake rounding the mark to port instead of starboard. He was followed by the B14 sailed by Rod Boswijk & Sharon Binney & the Tasar of Pete Ellis & Charlotte Birbeck who realised their mistake & corrected themselves. Unfortunately the leading pair did not & had to retire from the race despite having some exhilarating downwind sailing in the gusty easterly winds. Once round the leeward mark there was a long hard slog back to the windward mark. John McLaren was joined by his son this week & sailed an excellent race to finish second behind the Tasar of Pete Ellis & Charlotte Birbeck. Plymouth Youth Sailing’s Russell Brown & Laurence Greenough excelled in the demanding conditions in their Laser Vago to claim third place on handicap ahead of Ben Gilbert’s RS400 & the late starting John Bower in the Phantom after his hasty repairs.

With 15 starters in the slow handicap fleet the laser radials led from the start with Jonathan Couch in his first appearance in the series leading Sarah Kennedy & Liam Arrowsmith . There was a strong fleet of toppers from Plymouth Youth Sailing taking part in the race with George Watson & James Bartlett leading the pack of Toppers chasing the front three. Robyn Edgecombe & Aoife Webb fought to control the Laser 2000 & managed a well deserved 10th place in the slow handicap fleet in very demanding conditions. At the finish it was 1, 2 & 3 for the laser radials with newcomer Jonathan Couch ahead of Sarah Kennedy with Liam Arrowsmith in a well deserved third place.

The second race or the fast handicap fleet started after a short delay to gather up some straggling Toppers. By this time the wind has risen to around force 6 with gusts above and the downwind leg proved to be something of a handful for all. With a master-class in high speed sailing the Hobie Tiger sailed by Conrad Humpreys & Ryan Crawford made it look easy followed by Rod Boswijk’s B14 and John McLaren’s RS400’s. These proved to be the only finishers in the fast handicap fleet with the others retiring to race another day.

The increased winds saw only ten starters in the slow handicap race with the laser radials leading from the start once again. Jonathan Couch & Sarah Kennedy led from the start but on the first round Jonathan Couch was passed at the gybe mark by Sarah Kennedy who gybed around the mark instead of taking the safe route of tacking that Couch had opted for. As the race progressed Jonathan Couch managed to take the lead again whilst Liam Arrowsmith was having his own battle with Jon Buckler in his Solo. The Solo managed to take the lead on the long windward leg only to capsize at the gybe mark to allow the laser to take a momentary lead until he was overpowered on the exhilarating reach into the leeward mark to also take a swimming lesson !!. This was enough to let the Solo claim third place with George Watson’s Topper close enough on handicap to take fourth place relegating Arrowsmith to fifth position ahead of Robyn Edgecombe & Aoife Webb who sailed another excellent race in their Laser 2000 in what was very demanding conditions for all of the crews.

As always in this series the race management was excellent and the hard work of the safety boat crews were very greatly appreciated by all of the competitors. The next round will be on Saturday 14th February (Valentines Day !!) - NOTE to weather god, a tad less breeze please!

Results after Day 3:

Fast Handicap

Slow Handicap