Sunsail Racing Series Final 2014

Late afternoon racing in the Sunsail Racing Series Final © Terry Hunt

Waiting for the wind in the Sunsail Racing Series Final © Terry Hunt

Rounding the windward mark in race 1 of the Sunsail Racing Sereis Final © Terry Hunt

Saturday 15th November saw the conclusion of the 2014 Sunsail Racing Series. 17 of the 22 invited finalists arrived on the Friday evening, only to wake to torrential rain and zero wind on race day!

The committee boat set out to SE Ryde Middle in the hope that something may appear. The forecast wasn't looking good with southerly winds 2-3kts forecast for the morning and 6-7kts in the afternoon.

Upon arrival, the conditions would have been more suited to water skiing than yacht racing, with comments being made that they can't remember the last time they saw the Solent this flat!

After a couple of hours postponement, the faintest of breezes filled in from the south around the area of Motherbank. The committee boat upped anchor and set off towards the breeze.

The decision was made to run two windward leeward races, each of two laps.

We were off... being the final and having floated around for a few hours, the fleet were obviously eager to get racing, with the majority of the fleet over at the start... general recall!

At the second attempt, the race officer introduced flag Uniform, over the line and it's a DSQ! This kind of helped, but one eager boat, 4024 Tom Low still found themselves over, and with only two races planned, their final was effectively over.

Up the first windward leg, the fleet split into 2 with the left hand side paying. 4004 Iskander Rakhimov and 4005 Jeremy Wright lead the fleet around the 1st mark followed by 4023 Richard Patrick, 4003 Kelvin Matthews and 2013 Series Winner, 4020 Roger Philips.

However, an altercation between 4004 and 4005 would see them in the protest room at the end of the day!

After the second lap and much place changing, Iskander took line honours (who was later DSQ'd and accepted a 20% penalty) with 4023 Richard Patrick working his way up to second followed by 4005 Jeremy Wright in third.

Race 2 started in about 8kts of breeze with a good chance it was going to fade away, so this made for a very tactical race.

Again the fleet split and this time the 2013 Racing Series Champion, Ian Martin on 4019 took the early advantage with 4024 Tom Low rounding second just ahead of 4025 David Miller. After the downwind leg, the positions didn't change, although the leading boats were now a lot closer to each other.

Tom Low worked his way through to the front up the second beat and established a lead he held until the finish to take line honours. Ian Martin although dropping to second, had a comfortable lead over 3rd placed David Miller at the finish.

So in the end it really was an afternoon of what if's (Tom Low being DSQ'd from the 1st race!) and some consistent sailing by the eventual winners!

Congratulations then goes to David Miller and his Durham Alumni team on taking the overall win and being crowned the 2014 Sunsail Racing Series Champions, followed by Ian Martin and Richard Patrick.

Durham Alumni finish 1st in the Sunsail Racing Series Final - photo © Terry Hunt

The 2014 season has yet again been a real success for the Sunsail Match First 40's, we had nearly 100 separate entries into the Racing Series, the Round the Island Race and Cowes Week being as competitive as ever, the fleet is only growing in strength.

If you wish to blow the cobwebs away with some fantastic one design racing, the season starts off with our Chiller event over the weekend of the 28th February & 1st March 2015.

If you are interested in this or any other Sunsail events, please contact Terry Hunt at .

Overall Results: