420 Open at Bosham Sailing Club
by Sue Ross 9 Sep 2009 12:29 BST
6 September 2009
It was a glorious sunny day for the Open with a hardcore of Bosham boats and good support from Itchenor and Emsworth/Emsworth Slipper Sailing Clubs together with a welcome visit from Poole. The day started with very little wind until mid morning when a gentle breeze kicked in from the SW.
This picked up to some 11/12 knots gusting up to 16 knots towards mid afternoon. It provided ample opportunity for the 420 boats to enjoy the four races set by the race officer, Andrew Francis.
The first race set was short with a windward leeward course. The front runners, Sam Rolls and Kate Ross from Bosham, had a strong lead and managed to stay ahead of the rest of the fleet winning by some margin.
In the second race, which was an extended version of the first course, the Fitzgerald sisters from Itchenor stamped their authority on the day and finished first over the line.
During a pause for lunch the course was changed to a trapezoid which introduced some exciting spinnaker reaches.
Bosham held strong in the third race with Sam Rolls and Kate Ross winning in a closely fought race with the Fitzgerald sisters. Ben Clark from Bosham received a round of applause when he finished this race single-handed after capsizing and leaving his crew Joss Robinson in the patrol boat!
With everything to play for in the fourth race the Itchenor and Bosham lead boats fought for the winning position. The Fitzgerald sisters came in first over the line hence becoming the overall winners of the day despite finishing on equal points with the Bosham boat, who finished a close second.
Congratulations to all who took part and thank you to all the people who helped on the day.
The winners were Isabel and Charlotte Fitzgerald from ISC and on equal points the runners up were Sam Rolls and Kate Ross from BSC. In third place from Emsworth SC were Jess Lavery and Georgie Mothersele.