Asymmetric Open at Kielder Water Sailing Club

A collection of High performance asymmetric dinghies descended on Kielder Water Sailing Club on the last weekend of April, for the club’s inaugural Asymmetric Open Meeting.

Day 1 saw light winds and sunshine. Could Kielder start to live up to its ‘Lake Garda of the North’ comparison? The first race was a drifter, with the fleet seeming evenly matched up the beat. Having made a reasonable job of the numbers game Fergus Holland and Francis Scott, sailing an ISO made it round the windward mark for a lead they held to the finish. Steve and Julie Gibbon in their RS200 were 2nd and Paul Davis in a Musto Skiff 3rd.

Race 2 began in a more promising breeze, although this dropped off slightly after the beat, providing some challenging tactical work in and out of the wind channels. Ian Turnbull and Adam Ovington in a 49er played this to their advantage and won the race comfortably.

In the afternoon the wind became more consistent in strength, but swung round to the south, leaving a very port biased line for race 4. Most of the fleet were doing port end fliers, although the party was somewhat spoiled by Fergus Holland and Francis Scott (ISO) cruising across on Starboard at the last moment. This gave them an unassailable lead, with Steve and Julie Gibbon (RS200) in 2nd. Ian Trotter (Musto skiff) was 3rd, taking the overnight lead.

Day 2 brought more wind, and race 5 was an exciting battle, with close match racing in the Mustos and ISOs. Ian Trotter came out on top in the former and Chris Herbert and Phil Armstrong in the latter, with Trotter winning overall. Race 6 got underway with strong winds, but at around the half way point, with the two ISOs well placed, it was called off because of a thunderstorm!

In the afternoon the fleet went out again in much lighter conditions, with Ian Trotter winning the remaining 2 races, and thus the series.

Overall Results: