P&B Merlin National Championships at Looe Sailing Club - Day 3

The third race of the P&B sponsored Merlin Championships at Looe produced champagne conditions and a champagne performance. Starting in 16 knots from the southwest that steadily built throughout the race to end at 24 knots, sailed under blue skies and with some superb waves, this was a classic championship race. Competitors returned to shore exhausted but elated by the conditions.

After a number of attempted starts with the wind swinging through 20 deg, the PRO put up the Black Flag and brought the fleet to order. William Warren and Mark Oakey, YouTube stars of the pin end start yesterday, executed the perfect start and doing what worked in race 2, tacked and crossed the fleet to get into the right hand corner. Unfortunately for them, this was a race where left paid. Those that held onto starboard picked up a 10 deg header and were the leaders at the top mark.

Stu Bithell and Tom Pygall rounded first and never looked back. In a quite awesome performance, they crushed this high quality fleet, doing a horizon job. They were simply faster on all points of sailing and consistently on the right shift. I guess that is why Stu goes Olympic sailing and the rest of us have desk jobs!

Behind them there was a huge battle going on. Dave Hayes and Jonny Radcliffe rounded second but were slowly ground down by Nick and Alan, and Jon and Toby who were climbing through the top ten to take second and third. Taxi and Simon came home fifth holding off Ian Sharps and Justin Deal who are putting together a solid series.

Back off the water, excitement is building for this evening's fancy dress party, a highlight of the Merlin calendar, and for the outcome of the first known coupling of a Merlin helm and Co-op check out girl.

Results after Day 3: