Tacktick by Suunto Grand Slam at Weston Sailing Club

Tacktick by Suunto Grand Slam at Weston Sailing Club © Eddie Mays

Tacktick by Suunto Grand Slam at Weston Sailing Club © Eddie Mays

Strong wind warnings dominated conversations prior to the Tacktick by Suunto Grand Slam at Weston Sailing Club. Was there to be a repeat of a few years ago when the first day would be cancelled?

Asymmetric Fleet

Race 1 - With 18 knots of wind, no where near the talked about 45 knots, the race officer took the decision to race and set a course for the South easterly that was evident. But with 30 seconds it felt like the forecast would be a right and a squall hit the fleet but from the South West. Those that stayed ashore thought that they had made the right choice… but this is Weston and just as quickly as the wind increased it dropped, but from yet another direction this time the North. The racing was dominated by Mark Watts and Chris Bishop in the Ullman Sails powered B14. They built an unassailable lead over the fleet with the RS200s of Christian Humphrey and Noel Vidal followed by the local RS200 of Tim Golding and Josie Bell taking 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Race 2 - With the wind appearing to have dropped, a few more joined the fleet for the start of Race 2. The 49er of Ron Price and Amy Cartwright led from the start only to break their mast forcing their retirement. This left the B14 of Watts and Bishop leading the fleet to take what was to be another win. With the battling RS200s of Humphrey and Golding taking 2nd and 3rd respectively to give a repeat of Race 1.

Race 3 - Saturday dawned and the wind had decreased a little. Price had fixed his mast in time and took to the water, although leading the fleet round the course couldn’t quite to build enough of a lead over the Watts/Bishop B14 or the RS800 of Dan Kilsby and Bart Bridges who took full advantage of the windward-leeward course to take 2nd over the local RS700 of Chris Aston.

Race 4 - In similar conditions to Race 3, Price/Cartwright again lead the fleet, taking full advantage of the windward-leeward course looked comfortable for the lead but the battling B14 of Watts/Bishop did enough to take the lead. 3rd went again to the RS700 of Aston.

Race 5 - Price took advantage of the port biased line and crossed the fleet leading around the course. But it was the again B14 of Watts/Bishop that managed to do more than enough to take the win with the local RS800 of A Gould and Emma Pethybridge taking 2nd ahead of the Aston RS700

Race 6 - Price/Cartwright 49er took full advantage of the conditions and pulled out what looked like an unassailable lead, but again couldn’t quite manage to pull out enough over the Watts/Bishop B14, but it was the International 14 of Pearson that just squeezed the 49er into 3rd place.

Race 7 - With the B14 having secured the overall win, Watts decided to sit this one out, as did most of the fleet. So a much reduced fleet took to the start. The Gould/Pethybridge RS800 took the lead and looked to dominate the fleet. However, it was the local RS200 of James Stewart and Elundeo Jones that managed the win, mastering the gusty conditions. 3rd in the RS700 was Rob Jones from Weston who had decided that one sail downwind was better than 2.

Fast Handicap

The fast handicap was dominated by the Contender of Keith Paul who, at the ripe old age of 70, showed that that age isn’t a barrier in a competitive fleet.

Race 1 - It was the local boats that dominated this race. Keith Paul took the lead and was never to be troubled, with the much younger Robert Angus in his Contender chasing him round the course to take 2nd, to spoil the Contenders party was the RS300 of Steven Lee.

Race 2 - Although not managing to win this one, Keith Paul was going to prove that consistency is the secret to a good overall result, never dropping out of the top two. It was the local Contender of Jeremy Blaydes who won with the RS300 of Lee 3rd.

Race 3 - The fleet was joined by Carl Tagoe in his Contender, could he throw a spanner in the local boys domination? From the result of race 3 it didn’t look that way, only managing to score a 5th. It was Keith Paul that dominated again, but chased by Mike Murley in his Contender and D Bate in his Contender, such is the strength of the Contender fleet at Weston.

Race 4 - Maybe during the break Tagoe had worked out where all the marks where, but there was to be no repeat of the 5th place earlier. Tagoe led the fleet, chased by the ‘old man’ only a few lengths behind, so Paul took his second 2nd place, with Blaydes picking up the 3rd.

Race 5 - Again it was Paul that was to dominate over Tagoe, these 2 pushing each other right to the end, with Bates taking 3rd place.

Race 6 - Race 6 was almost a carbon copy of race 5, but with Murley pushing Bates into 4th this meant that Paul had won overall, but with lower places still to play for the final day was going to the wire.

Race 7 - With the wind at 22-25 knots and gusting more. By now Tagoe had good idea of where to go and managed to get away from Paul. Paul managed to hold on for 2nd place finishing just ahead of Blaydes.

Slow Handicap

Race 1 - This windy race was to be dominated by the Europes of Ian Stow and Richard Egleton both showing their experience in the boat and mastery of the conditions. With Kerry Morgan in the Laser Radial taking a fine 3rd place.

Race 2 - With a slight decrease in wind strength, the Scorpion of Ryan Buchannon and Hannah Burke led the fleet around the course, but could not pull out enough on the local Laser of Ian Morgan who managed to get the win ahead of his wife Kerry in the Laser Radial and the Scorpion taking 3rd.

Race 3 - With the slight decrease in the wind the fleet set off around the same course as the Fast Handicap fleet. With a nice run in the course, it was the Scorpion that led the way and managed to really pull out on the fleet taking the win, but such is the way of handicap racing that whilst many of the fleet were battling away, the Mirror of Nigel Thomas crewed by his son Rob Thomas were never far out of it on handicap, taking full advantage of the run and managed to get a fine 2nd place. It was the Finn of James Hewitt that managed to take 3rd.

Race 4 - A slight change in the course allowed for the non-spinnaker boats to come to the fore, but it was the Scorpion that once again pulled away from the fleet, chased by Ian Morgan's Laser and the National 12 of Jeremy Hartley and Felix Newark-Smith.

Race 5 - Tiredness must now have been beginning to take its toll. On the heavily port biased start the race officer had to resort to the black flag after several general recalls, but as the fleet got away, the Scorpion pulled out what looked like a significant lead, but could only manage 3rd. It was the Thomas’ Mirror that took the win just ahead of Hartley/Newark-Smith in their National 12.

Race 6 - It was again the Scorpion that crossed the line first, this time managing to pull out enough on the fleet to take the win. The Hartley/Newark-Smith National 12, that must now have been reflecting on what if they had gone out on the Friday, as they were beginning to string together a consistent set of results across the series managing yet another 2nd just ahead of the Thomas’ Mirror.

Race 7 - A much reduced fleet took to the start line. The race was looking like it was going to be dominated by Ian Morgan in his Laser but his wife, Kerry, and the Thomas’ Mirror had other ideas. The Mirror taking the win ahead of Kerry Morgan in her Radial, who only finished about 100m behind Ian, but having sailed really well through out the weekend siblings Amber and James Brown finally got their rewards taking a fine 3rd place.

Weston would like to thank all those that took part in the regatta, and would like to thank Tacktick by Suunto for their continued support of the Easter Grand Slam.

Overall Results:

Asymmetric Fleet

Fast Handicap

Slow Handicap