Blithfield Barrel 2014-15 - Round 3
by Chris Martin 12 Jan 2015 19:33 GMT
11 January 2015
It was a brave but depleted fleet that made the journey to Blithfield to contest the third round of the Barrel series, and the predicted strong wind certainly delivered as on arrival the white caps completely covered the lake and the breeze was not predicted to peak until midday - funnily enough the scheduled start time for race 1.
19 boats launched into the maelstrom of white water around the clubhouse corner for what was likely to be something of a war of attrition. Chris Gould and Nick Broomhall in the Osprey got around the windward mark first and cleared away from the pursuing Merlin of Andy Davies/Ian Smith. He never quite got clear enough to take the handicap win, with Jim Hunt in the OK perhaps unlucky to not sail an extra lap in third - the only boat to not capsize in a race where even a well known local sailmaker and Jim's business partner was seen to wear around!
Lunch ensued, once again Jayne Tatton and her team did there stuff perfectly and all were grateful.
The breeze was still well up at 2:00 but 6 boats were up for the second race. Again Chris and Nick cleared off out in front and stayed there as the wind slowly died to less ferocious proportions. This made a fairly epic battle for second possible between Andy Davis/Ian Smith and Matt Biggs/John Hackett in the Merlins. This time the Osprey did get clear enough to take the win with Taxi/Ian managing to hold off a late charge from Matt/John.
Looking at the overall standings Team Taxi/Smith will have to work hard in February to tie on points with the Osprey of Chris Gould and Nick Broomhall still first overall. This promises to be an unmissable contest and will take place on the 15th February - see you there!
Thanks to our sponsors for the weekend, HD Sails, and to the race team for providing good racing in incredibly challenging conditions!
Results can be found here.