Topper Open Meeting at Crawley Mariners Yacht Club

Light wind conditions with no more than 5 to 6 knots at best and shifts up to 20 degrees were the order of the day. 10 visitors joined 10 home boats to give a fleet of very mixed ability – for five this was their first Open Meeting experience.

Race 1

Michael O'Driscoll (Crawley Mariners) established an early lead and was 1minute 16 seconds ahead of Nancy Scott (Island Barn) at the end of the first lap, these two positions were held to the finish - lap 2 - with Nancy reducing the gap to 36 seconds. Matthew Hodges (Papercourt) was in close contention for the first lap but dropped back to 6th. Hatty Ward (Queen Mary) improved over the second lap to move up from 5th to 3rd but was four and half minutes behind. Clive Jackson (Papercourt) dropped from 4th to 5th and was 7 minutes down on the leader. Grace Bradley-Shankar (Docklands) made the most improvement from 11th, at the end of lap 1, to 4th at the finish. The remaining boats broadly maintained their position with just 1 or 2 place changes either way.

Race 2

The same course was used but with a slight increase in wind strength the average lap time dropped to 17 minutes for the leader. O'Driscoll again took the lead but this time had Jack Hill (Bough Beech) in close pursuit - just 30 seconds behind at the end of lap 1. O'Driscoll then pulled away to finish 1 minute 15 seconds ahead. Jackson held onto 3rd but was three and half minutes behind. Ward held 4th a further 20 seconds later. Elliot Marks (Bough Beech) made a good improvement gaining 3 places to take 6th.

Race 3

A course change was made to give some variation and more laps – this gave an average lap time for the leader of just under 9 minutes. O'Driscoll repeated his morning performance and held 1st from start to finish with Jackson a minute behind. William Cook (Queen Mary) took up the challenge this time and was just 11 seconds behind at the end of lap 3, he then lost out by 10 seconds to Jackson who had worked his way up from 5th to take 3rd. Ward sailed consistently and held 4th throughout. Thereafter it was 1 to 3 place changes up or down.

Race 4

Jackson this time took command from the start and held off O'Driscoll for the 1st lap to cross 30 seconds ahead. O'Driscoll got back and was 5 seconds ahead at the start of lap 2 but Jackson managed to regroup and overtake to finish 1st. Ward was in very close contention throughout and at the end of lap 3 had passed O'Driscoll but was unable to hold him off and finished 3rd. Nancy Scott sailed consistently over the 4 laps to take 4th. Hill did well to move up from 10th to 5th.

Overall

A protest in Race 4 involving Jackson, O'Driscoll and Ward resulted in Jackson losing his 1st place and dropping to 4th in the final placings.

Prizes

Awards were made to the top 6 places; the first Crawley Mariner outside of the top 6 – this being Andrew O'Driscoll and the highest placed 'first Open' went to Matt Davies (CMYC).

Overall Results: