Bowmoor Six-Hour Race for the Stephen Robertson Memorial Trophy
by Doug Roberts 8 Jul 2014 15:15 BST
5 July 2014
Bowmoor Six-Hour Race for the Stephen Robertson Memorial Trophy 2014 © Derrick Page
The annual event took place on Saturday July 5th at Bowmoor Sailing Club with variable winds from 1 to 2 mph through to gusts of 15 to 20 mph with all strengths in between and some significant changes of direction. We also had sunshine and a heavy downpour.
Entries were down this year as we had managed to clash with lots of other events including the Tour De France. However we had 12 teams entered, about 30 sailors taking part in 10 different classes of boat. These ranged from 5 RS Aeros (two with 9m rigs and three with 7m rigs) to a Wayfarer and a Topper.
Competitors were allowed to start at any between 10.45 am and 11am and everyone finished when they went through the line after 4.45pm and the race was sailed in a good spirit with everyone enjoying their selves.
Antony and Dave Lynall sailing their prototype RS Aero 9 were in the lead after the first hour followed by Mike Tustin and Ross Harvey in the second RS Aero 9, Marcia and Simon Lynall in the RS Aero 7, Paul and Ryan Scott in their Topaz Uno and Neil and Ian Crosby in their Laser. While the 2 RS Aero 9s swapped places at the front of the fleet the Laser of Neil and Ian worked their way into third place only to be piped at the end of the race by the RS Aero 7 of Doug Roberts and John Beresford.
This gave the RS Aeros a clean sweep of the podium positions which some may debate is partly due to their recently-generated Portsmouth Yardstick numbers.
Many thanks to the organisers Dave Lynall and Kate Tustin, to the OOD Geoff Silcock and his team. More photographs are on the Bowmoor Facebook page.
Results: (top three)
1st Antony and David Lynall, RS Aero 9
2nd Mike Tustin and Ross Harvey, RS Aero 9
3rd Doug Roberts and John Beresford, RS Aero 7