Graduate Nationals at Stewartby Water Sailing Club - Day 1
by Stephen Cockerill 2 May 2011 08:54 BST
30 April - 2 May 2011
Stewartby Reservoir is the venue for the 2011 Graduate National Championships which is being sailed over the weekend of the 30th April, 1st May and 2nd May.
The Graduate often frustrates much larger boats on small inland lakes, especially in light winds with comparatively inexperienced teams so it was not surprising that only 30 sailors showed up to Stewartby Sailing Club after winds of 25 knots plus were forecast for the whole weekend.
When the teams arrived at Stewartby, the wind looked to be a nice 12-15 knots, but as they tucked into their lunch the wind began to build as forecast. With one race scheduled on the first day, the fleet took to the water in winds in the mid 20's and it finished with gusts of 30 knots in an Easterly direction.
Despite being one of the lightest teams on the water, Steve Cockerill (77kg) crewed by Harry Kennedy (42kg) took the early lead on the first leg in 3005 with Howard Astley-Jones and Barney Proud hard on their heels in Rooster. Not far behind was Andy and Sue Flitcroft in 3001 fighting it out with Andrew and Emma Hubble in 3000. James Bottoms and Anne Hubert showed some good form to windward in 3003 and were battling it out with Calum and Rory MacKenzie in their 25 year old Dandy Grad who always seemed to have the off wind speed to frustrate James and Anne. On lap 2 Andrew and Emma went for a long swim joined a lap later buy Howard and Barney; Barney suggested that he should pull the centreboard up a little more to gain some extra speed; 15 seconds later a new gust flipped them leaving Andy and Sue Flitcroft in what looked like a comfortable 2nd on the last lap, despite a late surge from Howard and Barney that narrowed the gap to just 4 boat lengths at the finish line.
As conditions worsened on the last lap Steve and Harry were also seen to granny round on the last gybe mark after they were hit by a 30+ knot gust at the gybe mark but still won by a comfortable margin from Andy and Sue, Howard and Barney were 3rd from Rory and Calum in 4th who had finally sneaked to leeward of James and Anne on one particularly windy broad reach.
Three more races are scheduled for Sunday and two on Monday - with similar conditions forecast it could still be an open contest.