Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy 2012

Battling between classes at the Steve Nicholson Trophy © Anthony York / www.chunkypics.co.uk

Battling between classes at the Steve Nicholson Trophy © Anthony York / www.chunkypics.co.uk

150 boats enjoyed a great Steve Nicholson Trophy and raised over £2000 for Asthma UK. Thank you to all those who took part and all those who gave their time and energy to run the event.

The foiling fleet consisted of 6 International Moths, small but impressive, they sailed a windward leeward course. They managed to fly in the predominantly light conditions. Former Moth champion Mike Cooke edged out Mike Lennon in the two race series finishing with a first and a second to Lennon’s first and third.

There were 29 boats in the asymmetric fleet, who joined the Moths on the windward leeward course. The light winds suited the RS400s; Scott Allen and Charlie Odell scored a solid second and a first. They cunningly peaked in the second race thus beating Jasper Barnham and Graham Sexton, also in a 400, on the tie break. Splitting the 400s dominance, Chris Larr in an RS100 sneaked into third place with two top five finishes. The Youth prize in the asymmetrics went to the talented Tom Darling and Will Doling sailing a Feva XL.

The single-handed fleet had 58 entrants. Perhaps unsurprisingly in the light conditions the Phantoms dominated the results but the Great Lakes handicap numbers appear to have mixed it up a little. Andy Couch and Andrew Wilde were consistent and took the top two places, but Ian Morgan and Max Nicholson both had good races in Lasers scoring a third and a fourth respectively in the second race, but poor first races dragged them down the overall standings. RS300 star Steve Bolland did it the other way round, scoring a fourth in race one but twenty third in race two. It was left to Michael Sims in a Solo with a fifth and a sixth to take the final podium place and prove that consistency pays.

The double-handed fleet had 60 entrants which was a fine sight on the start line. William Warren and Chris Robinson in a Merlin port tacked the fleet in race one and played with the 505s for a while and were good enough to win the race, however they failed to pull off the same trick in race two. The line in race two was heavily port biased and the fleet had one general recall, the line was shifted but there was still a bunch at the port end which trapped a lot of boats. The right hand side of the beat paid off and the Larks of Alan Krailing and Edd Mcardle and Harry Pynn and Gemma Cook rounded right at the front of the fleet. Alan and Ed sailed a brilliant race and finished second.

The first reach was close against the shore and lots of boats got trapped in no breeze. There were huge place changes and lots of opportunity for the slower boats to gain, but as the race unwound it was once again the Merlins that dominated. Dave Winder and Pippa Taylor from Hollingworth Lake SC came ashore at lunch thinking their chances of victory had gone but they won the second race and took the trophy, Tom Stewart and Steve Hall in another Merlin finished second ahead of Peter Grey and Alex Hayman in a Scorpion. The junior prize went to Mathew Currell and Theo Smith in a Cadet who finished a very impressive 12th overall.