GP14 Victor Trophy at Seahorse Sailing club

The Victor Trophy was held on a bright summer’s day but with winds that proved fluky and unreliable. They were largely westerly down the Harp, but prone to moving around without warning and providing frustrating holes for the unwary racer.

The OOD set a simple figure of eight course for all three races that provided long beats and good spinnaker runs.

In the first race before lunch, all boats got off to a clean start and after a competitive beat up to the first mark Richard Lord and Lorna Davies from Sea Horse took the lead, closely followed by James Ward and Richard Whitehill from Papercourt . Richard extended his lead from James over the next spinnaker run, appearing to run away with the race, with a following pack of Chris Lomax and Pete Kay from Seahorse, Ben Kaplan and Roberto Serra from Seahorse, Jim Falkner and ~Steve Cooper from BTYC, and Roger Walton and his crew Lucy from BTYC.

To some extent, the pack caught up to the two lead boats over the second lap, only for Richard to re-establish his dominance in the final lap to the finish, with James Ward in second and Jim Faulkner emerging from the chasing pack to finish in third.

In the afternoon, the second race got underway with racers bunching up against the pin, and drifting in light winds against the south shore. After the first windward mark and on to the second, Richard Lord appeared to be in the lead, but on the run, changeable winds shuffled the pack, and by the end of that down wind leg, Chris Lomax from Seahorse and Jim Faulkner from BTYC pulled clear. Jim and Chris remained locked in their own private battle for the second lap, resolving itself in a clear win for Jim, who stretched away for an emphatic win by the end of the third.

The results of the first two races left the overall lead perfectly balanced with Richard Lord and Jim Faulkner with a win and a third a piece. With all to play for in the third, the excitement appeared to get the better of the competitors, and after a general recall and a black flag start, the race began. Richard got onto port quickly and was among the leaders immediately, but by the second mark and onto the run, there was no clear leader with a group of Roger Walton (BTYC), David Innes (Fensham), and Richard Lord all contending for the lead. Coming round on to the short reach after the run, Roger established a clear lead from Richard, and the two pulled clear from the main fleet. Richard piled on the pressure in the second lap, and with spinnakers flying in second down wind leg, Richard appeared to have the race in the bag. The lottery of the Harp wind saw Richard fall into a hole, while the wind filled in behind him to bring a late charge from the chasing fleet, and as the race was shortened to two laps, a group of four boats fought each other in the final beat to the finish. Of the four combatants, Richard, Roger, Chris Lomax from Seahorse and Andy Walton from BTYC any could have emerged the winner. At the last, Richard Lord took advantage of the slight bias in the line to slide to victory up against the Committee boat. Andy Wadsworth and his crew Dennis Adams surged to a well deserved second, with Roger in third and Chris Lomax in fourth.

With two races of the three to count, Richard Lord and his crew, Lorna Davies emerged as clear winners to lift the trophy. Jim Falkner and Steve Cooper were in second place with Chris Lomax and his crew Peter Kay in third.

For the purposes of awarding prizes, the racers had been divided into silver and gold fleets on the basis of the results of the first race. Honours for the silver fleet went to Andy Wadsworth and Dennis Adams in first place, Martin Hime and Maurice in second place and Robin Imray and T Cole in third.

Overall we had 25 boats with 3 visitors, 10 boats from Seahorse and 11 boats from BTYC.

Overall Results: