Blithfield Barrel at Blithfield Sailing Club - Day 4
by Chris Martin 22 Feb 2010 16:13 GMT
21 February 2010
The last round of the Barrel series looked a write off both en-route and on arrival. The treacherous roads caused by a heavy and unexpected fall of snow reduced the number of travellers, and those that did make it early were greeted by the sight of a partially froxen lake. However the diesel power boats make excellent ice breakers, and by the time the 30 competitors were ready the lake was almost completely clear of ice. Better still, a reasonable breeze had kicked in from the south.
The first race started with a slight port bias that later developed into a large wind bend up the left hand side of the course. A group of Merlins lead around the first mark and had very tight racing between them, Tom Stewart and Liam Dempsey took line honours followed by Matt Biggs and Ben Hollis.
Lunch time once again consisted of some excellent pies, our thanks to Jayne Tatton and Chris Male for feeding everyone.
The results of the first race, and the snow enforced absence of Andy Couch, made the series wide open and made Matt Biggs chances of taking the Barrel a more realistic possibility. All looked lost however for much of the race as they triled in third place desperately needing a win, however in this case desperation proved to be the mother of invention! I have never seen a Merlin Rocket sailed like an RS400 before, but Matt and Ben played the angles downwind perfectly, rounding the last mark just in front of Taxi/Tom Pygall and Tom Stewart/Liam Dempsey to take the race and the Barrel.
Blithfield SC have really enjoyed hosting the Barrel series this year and we have been overjoyed with the turnouts. As always there are people to thank. Tim Male did the majority of the work on organisation while Margaret Boyson and Chris Guy did OOD duty for three of the 4 weekends. Jayne Tatton and Chris Male provided hot food and Gill Leney provided cakes after racing. Most importantly of all, the astonishing total of 86 boats completed at least one race in the series. Thanks to everyone who came and supported us, the intention is to hold the series over the same weekends next year to avoid clashes.
Photos from the racing can be seen in the Y&Y gallery or on the fotoboat website, and the full results will be available on the club website this evening.
Overall Results:
1st Matt Biggs & Ben Hollis, Merlin Rocket (Blithfield SC)
2nd Andy Davies & Tom Pygall, Merlin Rocket (Chase SC)
3rd Andy Couch, Phantom (Blithfield SC)
4th Richard Dee & Chris Gould, Merlin Rocket (Midland SC)
5th Richard Adams & Various, Merlin Rocket (Midland SC)
6th Steve & Gill Leney, Merlin Rocket (Blithfield SC)
7th Chris Martin & Ben Eaves, Merlin Rocket (Blithfield SC)
8th Jon Batt & Nick Broomhall, Osprey (Blithfield SC)
9th Tim Male & B Aldred, Merlin Rocket (Blithfield SC)
10th Tom & Andy Chadfield, Merlin Rocket (Blithfield SC)