Squib Last Chance Regatta at Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, Burnham
by Malcolm Hutchings 23 Oct 2014 11:41 BST
18-19 October 2014
Saturday morning forecast breezy gusty conditions with wind from the south but this didn't put off 17 boats including 3 visitors from Stone S.C. (and a rare appearance in Burnham from the Grogans) making the start line.
The weekends regatta was a tale of two halves with 4 windward leeward courses on sat and a non-discardable "round the cans" race on Sunday.
PRO Edwin Buckley with his team ran the four 40 minute back to back races immaculately and very close racing in the entrance to the river Roach was anticipated. Helmut Showing II with Nigel and Jack Grogan demonstrated how to short course race with superior speed and tactics easily posted 4 firsts. This included a clear win after returning being OCS initially in race 2.
This left the rest of fleet battling for the minor places with Spoof, Guy Fawkes, lady Penelope and noticeably a new name from Stone in "extra large 2" Nick Radley crewed by Mark Batt. If it wasn't for a couple of minor errors these two would have been best of the rest.
Sunday morning was glorious with building breeze again from the south giving surfing conditions for the squibs. Several helms were unable to make the Sunday race, which consequently dropped them out of contention for the overall prize. These included overnight leaders Nigel and Jack with podium potentials Nick and mark.
A club line, reaching kite start saw Lady Penelope leap out of the blocks to have a clear lead at the first mark Greenward before having several legs up and down the Roach. This lead was held to the finish but the battle for 2nd was tightly fought between Spoof, Chequemate, By the Lee and Neil Fulcher steering Helmut Shoeing II who eventually pulled through to 2nd.
With the Sunday race counting in the series this gave the podium positions to Lady Penelope, Spoof and Guy Fawkes but even counting a D.N.S Helmut Shoeing managed 4th.
With the boat speed showed by Nigel and Jack this team has to be the favourites for next years championships in Howth Ireland. With the strength of the Royal Corinthian Squib fleet it could be possible to have more than one of our boats on the podium, lets hope 2015 proves to be our year.
Overall Results: (R5 non-discardable)
Pos | Sail | Boat | Helm | Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | Pts |
1 | SQ819 | Lady Penelope | Malcolm Hutchings | Andy Ramsey | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
2 | SQ811 | Spoof | Micky Wright | Chris Dunn | 5 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 13 |
3 | SQ72 | Guy Fawkes | Phillip Aspinall | Duncan Grindley | 7 | 4 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 20 |
4 | SQ105 | Helmut Shoing | Nigel Grogan | Jack Grogan | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 21 |
5 | SQ157 | Chequemate | Ian Gray | Ian Simmons | 8 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 21 |
6 | SQ883 | Just In Time | Neil Fulcher | Ricky | 6 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 22 |
7 | SQ58 | | Nick Radley | Mark Batt | 2 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 18 | 30 |
8 | SQ823 | Humphrey | Robert Coyle | Marc Rawinsky | 3 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 18 | 32 |
9 | SQ868 | By The Lee | Nic Tolhurst | Dave | 18 | 18 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 35 |
10 | SQ678 | Festina Lente | Gina Ramsey | Alex Porteous | 9 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 7 | 35 |
11 | SQ736 | Magic Roundabout | Carl Anderson | | 18 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 8 | 39 |
12 | SQ25 | Crackers | Phil Shanahan | Alex Shanahan | 10 | 12 | 13 | 18 | 9 | 44 |
13 | SQ709 | Electra | David Mellard | Jamie Fergasson | 11 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 18 | 52 |
14 | SQ682 | Outcast | Roger Smith | Charles Tucker | 13 | 15 | 16 | 15 | 10 | 53 |
15 | SQ21 | Tombo | Bill Jones | Brian Meadows | 12 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 18 | 56 |
16 | SQ764 | Hotdog | Tony Gibson | Matt Smith | 14 | 14 | 15 | 14 | 18 | 60 |
17 | SQ762 | Patrick | Brian Tucker | Andrew Chase | 15 | 16 | 17 | 16 | 18 | 65 |