Spinlock Phanton Grand Prix at the Filey Sailing Club Regatta
by Ian Sullivan 3 Jul 2015 12:32 BST
27-28 June 2015
The Spinlock Phantom Grand Prix Series packed its bags and headed North for an event that if you believed WindGuru was to be no wind on Saturday and rain on Sunday. How wrong you can be.
Saturdays racing was definitely a Moet day and touching on it being Cristal conditions as the wind was 12 to 15 kts and an off shore wind provided just enough waves for surfing. Just as the start gun was about to go an incident caused Will Gulliver to start the race with his mast tip getting very wet (I'm writing the report so won't mention it was me that caused it....).
His delay allowed John Wayling, Chris Raistrick, Alex Morrison and the remaining fleet that weren't doing turns to get a head start. The racing was flat out with Will regretting that the course was not 100m longer loosing out to John by a few feet (and cursing meeting monsters before the start) with Craig and Alex following them home.
Race two was a bit less uneventful with Sullivan carrying out his customary port start crossing the fleet but forgetting that left was the way to go up the beat something that Alex and Richard Sims remembered to great effect as they took the tide and wind shift to power into the first mark with a clear advantage. Will managed to work his way into the lead followed by Alex and John at the finish.
Sunday arrived with a shift in the wind coming more from the South and a slight increase to 15 to 20 kts. Race three saw Sullivan again cross the fleet on port but this time going the right way up the beat to round with Will who took control of the race. John and Ian swapped places over the next couple of laps keeping Alex safely 100m behind, or so they thought....
On the penultimate lap Alex picked up a private gust on the tight reach of the 'P' course and closed on Ian to an uncomfortable distance. A tight finish ensued with Will, John, Ian and Alex taking the top few places.
With the wind closer to 20kts the final race provided everything you could want from sailing a phantom. Close racing, entertaining sailing and plenty of banter between sailors. Will took a clear win with Alex second and John third.
Will Gulliver won the event followed by John Wayling and Alex Morrison.
Overall Results:
1. Will Gulliver, 3pts
2. John Wayling, 6pts
3. Alex Morrison, 8pts
4. Craig Raistrick, 12pts
5. Ian Sullivan, 14pts
6. Adam Perry, 16pts
7. Richard Sims, 18pts
8. Phil Worth, 25pts
9. Paul Souter, 29pts
10. Chris Cooper, 31pts
For those that haven't done Filey Regatta or are too dependent on what WindGuru is predicting you should certainly make the effort to travel to this event. The club make every effort to make the sailors feel welcome (even going to the shop to stock the bar for us), the race officer laid challenging courses and didn't keep us waiting between races. They even laid on blue skies and a sandy beach - all in all a fantastic event and well worth the travel.
The next Spinlock Phantom Grand Prix is at the Weymouth Regatta over the weekend of 12 & 12 July.
www.phantomclass.org.uk