Comet Versa Inlands at Kingsmead Sailing Club

by David Talbot 3 Jun 2009 09:40 BST 30 May 2009

The Comet Versa Inland championships were held on Saturday 30th May at Kingsmead Sailing Club. Fantastic sunny weather greeted 5 visiting crews and 3 home boats as well as a following fleet of a dozen Comets.

Race officer Chris Boutle and his team started with a course through the windiest part of the lake. Local sailor Norman Coombs had a great start only to be piped to the first mark by Anthea Wright and Peter Coombs who proceeded to lead, followed by Neil Hird and daughter Megan leaving close racing for the rest of the fleet through clouds of dragonflies.

After lunch the race was sent through the "washing machine" as a path of strange wind coming round in circles past the first island was named for the day. This race was again won by Wright/Coombs being followed up by the noisy pair of Mike Wilcox and Andre Newman.

The third race on the same course. Wright/Coombs led to start with but more shifty winds meant that the spinnaker runs were more difficult to maintain. Andrew Keynes sailing single handed and without the use of a spinnaker did well, but was overtaken through the washing machine by Neil Hird crewed by David Talbot.

It was definitely “worth the trip” but probably remembered as “fun but frenetically flucky”.

Overall Results:

Pos	Boat Name	Sail No	Club	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1st	Sundancer	243	Kingsmead S.C.	Anthea Wright	Peter Coombs	1	1	-3	2
2nd		289	Kingsmead S.C.	Neil Hird	Megan Hird / David Talbot	2	-3	1	3
3rd	In the Red	225	Crawley Mariners	Andrew Keynes		4	-7	2	6
4th	Windancer	232	Bewl Valley S.C.	Mike Wilcock	Andre Newman	5	2	(DNF)	7
5th	In the Red	347	North Staffs S.C.	Martin Anderson	Dawn Walton	3	-6	4	7
6th	Verity	316	Kingsmead S.C.	Norman Coombs	Cassie Moran	-7	4	6	10
7th		235	West Oxfordshire S.C.	Chris Bunn		-6	5	5	10
8th	The Lady C	309	Whitefriars S.C.	Peter Talbot		8	(DNS)	DNS	17