Merlin Rocket Open at Shoreham Sailing Club

by Alex Jackson 27 Jul 2010 14:48 BST 24-25 July 2010

As predicted....nay, expected, the Merlin Rocket Shoreham Open was sailed under champagne conditions; again. Fifteen to twenty knots from the SW, chunky waves and more sunshine than you could shake a stick at. The Silver Tiller series is sponsored by Speed Sails.

The Race Committee headed by Peter Bennett and John Sheldon set four immaculate Olympic style courses over the weekend under difficult conditions. First out of the blocks were Simon Blake and Alex Jackson, rounding the windward mark first closely followed by John Gorringe and Richard Whitworth. Richard cut his way through the leading three boats to take the gun, Simon second and John third. As conditions freshened for the second race it was Simon and John again challenging for the first beat with Simon just sneaking ahead at the windward mark. Dalby sisters Andy and Phil rounded second and sailed over the top of Si and Alex with some excellent boat handling. As the race progressed it became clear that John and Richard had the boat speed advantage and battled it out for victory. Richard and Olly won again after an impeccable display of big weather sailing, John second, Si third and the relatively new to the fleet team of Ian Dobson and Andy Tunicliffe fourth.

The club put on a cracking evenings entertainment with a bbq on the grass lawns before competitors were given the choice of a relaxed night under the stars or hitting the Shoreham lights hard, with additional feeding at the Indian Cottage curry house and late night lager beers at the ever delightful (cough cough) Sovereign pub.

Sunday dawned and the weather gods threatened to deliver below par conditions with a measly five knots of breeze. This was quickly remedied as the sea breeze took full effect and normal service was resumed, force three to four, big waves and sunshine, ...standard.

Rich and Olly quickly made their intentions clear and nailed the first race, Ian and Andy chased hard and finished a well earned second, Jon and Pete continued their consistent form to take third and Si and Alex were fourth.

With the event now settled, Rich and Olly pushed the last start a little too hard and were caught black flagged leaving the racing open for the mere mortals. Si, John and Ian rounded within a few boat lengths of each other, local legend Willie Warren fourth and young Duncan Bell helming only his second ever meeting with father John rounded a brilliant fifth. Si and Alex got the shifts right on the first run to put them comfortably ahead while Ian just snuck John in taking second.

Overall we were definitely lucky with the weather, it really doesn’t get much better than that, in addition the race management, rescue boat cover and on shore support made for an excellent weekend’s competition.

The association’s next Silver Tiller event is Lymington (31st July and 1st August), before the Championships at Penzance SC (15th to 19th AUgust).

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail	Helm	Crew	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	Pts
1st	3703	Richard Whitworth	Olly Turner	HLSC/Starcross	1	1	1	(OCS)	3
2nd	3707	Simon Blake	Alex Jackson	Shoreham/Cookham	3	2	-4	1	6
3rd	3670	Ian Dobson	Andy Tunnicliffe	Burwain	4	-5	2	2	8
4th	3712	Jon Gotting	Pete Horn	Parkstone	2	-3	3	3	8
5th	3705	Matt Biggs	Ben Hollis	Blithfield	-11	4	7	5	16
6th	3685	William Warren	Sophie Mackley	Shoreham	5	-13	6	6	17
7th	370	Matt Mee	Pippa Taylor	Hollingworth Lake	(DNF)	9	9	4	22
8th	3661	Graham Scroggie	Ben Scroggie	Parkstone	7	8	-13	7	22
9th	3690	Andy Dalby	Ploppy Chops	H S C	6	7	-10	10	23
10th	3693	Will Rainey	Kelly Miller	Shoreham	8	-10	8	8	24
11th	3691	Mike Calvert	Jane Calvert	Axe	9	6	11	(DNF)	26
12th	3610	Richard Dee	Chris Gould	MIdland	10	(DNF)	5	14	29
13th	3696	Alan Warren	William Carroll	Shoreham	13	11	-16	9	33
14th	3611	Jen Taylor	Chris Dodds	Hollingworth	12	12	-14	11	35
15th	3676	Pat Blake	Jill Blake	Cookham Reach	14	(DNF)	12	13	39
16th	3539	Dan Alsop	Jennie King	Lyme Regis	-17	14	15	12	41
17th	3665	Ross Jackson	James Warren	Shoreham	16	15	-20	16	47
18th	3643	Alistair Glen	Moira Glen	Shoreham	15	(DNF)	18	15	48
19th	3650	Tosh	Liz	Banbury	(DNF)	17	19	17	53
20th	3625	Richard Bramley	Tony Cheal	Shoreham	19	16	-22	19	54
21st	3716	Steve Leney	Gill Leney	Blithfield	18	(DNS)	17	DNS	61
22nd	3645	Jeremy Deacon	Gareth Jones	CRSC	(DNS)	DNS	21	18	65
23rd	3569	Duncan Bell	John Bell	Hampton	(DNF)	DNS	DNF	20	72
24th	3442	Chris Iles	Kathy Iles	Locks/Portsmouth	(DNF)	DNS	23	DNF	75
25th	3644	Steve Mitchell	Polly Newman	Porthpean	(DNF)	DNS	DNF	DNF	78