Harken 29er Grand Prix at Queen Mary Sailing Club - Overall

‘Twas the day a million people came out to watch the boats – OK, that bit was some 10 miles further East on the Thames. But we had the better weather. Only light drizzle for R5 and half of R6 then it cleared and the wind rose from the fairly sedate 6-8kts to perhaps 10-12 and rising.

Shifts and windbands were common place and as the day before it really, really paid to be able to stay in them. Going on hot angles downwind you had to potentially bear away some 20 odd degrees if you fell out of the pressure and that was exacerbated when you then tried to gybe back. The only way of saving yourself was gybing immediately, the moment you felt the pressure drop.

One seasoned observer noted the following – at the front they were almost all hotting it up all the time, in the middle most mixed hotting it up with soaking and at the back there was a lot of soaking going on – hmmm. But we guess that the sailors were beginning to get the hang of them for Day 2 marked the return of reward for consistency. Outrageously all 3 top boats scored an identical 8pts today, even if only two of them did so by counting all 3 of the days races!

So the biggest box of choccies went to Ben Batten & Tim Gratton, top girls were Vikki Payne & Steffi Orton in 2nd whilst 3rd were the Time Lords, otherwise known as Phil Walker & John Mather (some feat of organisation to arrive 35 mins before the start and make it out in time at every single GP!).

Queen Mary provided great race management and their hospitality was as ever the business in their newly refurbished club house. Thank You. The full set of winners from each category was as follows with their thanks to the series sponsors – Harken.

Overall Results:

Ladies top 3:
Vikki Payne & Steffi Orton 2nd
Charlotte Hooper & Molly Brown 4th
Joan Furness & Abbie Page 9th

U16 top 3:
Curtis Mearns & Jamie Catchpole 16th
Jane Furness & Ellie Hide 18th
Hugo Tucker & Tim Collino 21st