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Access Class TT at Oxford Sailability

by Richard Johnson 9 Oct 2013 18:10 BST 2 October 2013
Access TT at Oxford © Ron Sawford

The last event of the Access Northern Area Travellers' Trophy took place at Farmoor on the first Wednesday in October. Eager competitors began to arrive before 9:00am and were pleased to see clearing skies and a steady 12 knot easterly wind across the lake.

Racing started promptly at 11:00 with the two liberties first away, match racing each other around the course. David Durston generally won the starts but Tom Harper, sailing a full-servo boat, had good speed and won race three by tacking early on the last beat to lead across the finish line. A little more tactical anticipation by Tom could easily have tipped the balance in this closely matched Class.

The biggest Class was 303 one and two-person combined, with a total of 11 boats racing. Paul Phillip's distinctive yellow sails were consistently at the front but Tessa Watkiss and Monique Foster were not far behind, except in Race 3 when Tessa – lying third at the windward mark – thought mark 3 was mark 2 and was disqualified for sailing an incorrect course. This allowed Monique to win the race but Tessa made up for it by winning the next one. Paul was never lower than second to win overall.

Meanwhile, in the two-person Class, there was close racing between the Ethertons and the Sheaths, with the Ethertons taking the title by one point in the very last race. Leslie and Hugh from Tideway always looked fast and proved it by taking advantage of a lucky wind shift to win the third race.

In the 2.3 Class, National Champion Lindsay Burns did not have it all her own way. Oxford's Sally Long and Sonia Bull shared a boat, helped by Gareth Griffith and, because both pairs were light and Gareth really knew his way around the reservoir, their boat was going fast in the right direction most of the time, which resulted in a tie break that only went in Lindsay's favour because she won the last race. This was the closest racing of the day.

Overall it was a very enjoyable event, with good racing and the favourites having to work hard to win. There were several outstanding sailing achievements further down the fleet and Oxford's Jack Collier received a special prize from RYA Sailability Chairman Richard Langford for Best Endeavour during the event.

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