Noble Marine UK Radial World & European Qualifier 3 at Highcliffe SC

by UKLA 25 Mar 2014 10:35 GMT 22-23 March 2014

Noble Marine UK Laser Spring Qualifier at Highcliffe © Highcliffe Sailing Club

The 96 Radials entered for the final Spring Qualifier sponsored by Noble Marine were brought back to reality this weekend. The temperature was at least 10 degs colder than at Pevensey Bay and with a brisk WSW'erly 15kt breeze gusting up to 20kts on Saturday everyone kept warm by working hard. Saturday's racing was as usual in Round Robin format with the results deciding the Gold & Silver fleets for Sunday.

Although the wind was reasonably steady in direction there were still enough shifts to make the beats interesting and the confused seas gave extreme excitement on the reaches, one of the benefits of using the old style Olympic course of triangles & sausages. Race 1a matched Jon Emmett & John Booth and it was Jon E. who still holds the edge and took the gun from John with Ben Elvin 3rd. In Race 1b Jack Aitken managed to separate Hannah Snellgrove (1st) & Rhiannon Massey (3rd).

Race 2a saw Jon E. take his 2nd win of the day, this time ahead of Chloe Martin & Ross Mackley. In the 2nd start Hannah also recorded another 1st with John B. & Ben taking the minor placings.

Race 3a matched Jon E. & Hannah for the first time. The start was always going to be crucial and for the first time in the weekend a handful of boats suffered the curse of the Black Flag, including Rhiannon. After an exceeding good race Hannah took her 3rd gun, making at a clean sweep. Jon E. was 2nd ahead of Bronze fleet sailor Joseph Mullan in 3rd.

At this point we break away from the racing for a special 'Mentioned in Despatches' paragraph. Everyone who has sailed at Highcliffe knows the perils of the Bar and the Spits with a strong onshore breeze. This winter the tremendous storms that have battered the coastline around Christchurch Bay have shifted things around and, whilst the Bar has remained in place, the Spits have shifted and on Saturday afternoon they were very difficult to see in the breaking waves.

Youth sailor Sam Thomas got caught out on his way ashore and his boat suffered major damage; broken mast, broken centreboard, ripped sail, etc. Shaken but not stirred he was back out on the water on Sunday morning having borrowed replacement parts. Many thanks also to everyone who helped him to get there. Good stuff all round!

Back on the race track the wind had shifted overnight to the NW and increased slightly. The offshore breeze was also more erratic as black rain clouds scurried across. With temporary large shifts it was the helms that were more in phase with the shifts that did best and here is often experience that paid the best dividends. In the Gold fleet Hannah still had the hex on Jon E. taking the first race with Jon 2nd and youth sailor Geoffrey Sherwood having his best result so far in 3rd.

The next race, the fifth of the weekend, broke the pattern with both Hannah and Jon E. not in the frame. Victory went to Chloe with Matt Whitfield 2nd & John B. 3rd.

At the start of the final race there was a very large wind shift that caused a major over run of the start line. As the PRO tried to get everyone back for the restart a very violent hail storm came through the course and all racing for the day was abandoned. Chaos and mayhem reigned for about 15 minutes, the Coastguard was put on stand by but not needed and happily everyone got ashore without any major problems.

In the Silver fleet Daniel Wigmore revelled in the conditions and won both his two races. In the first one 2nd place went to Simon Weatherspoon with Archie Dodwell 3rd and in the final race the minor placings were Tom Joice (2nd) & Iona Dixon 3rd and leading female helm in 7th place overall.

This weekend completes the Spring Qualifiers. Thanks to Highcliffe for a very well run weekend and also to NOBLE MARINE for their continued support of this very important series. For many of the younger sailors the next event is the RYA Youth Championships in mid-April at Weymouth. Full results and the Overall Ladders can be found at www.laser.org.uk/results

Overall Results: (top five)