Contender Eastern Area Mini-Series Overall

The Contender Eastern area Mini-series Championships were concluded this weekend 26th/27th September at Thorpe Bay Yacht Club. The championship is decided on the competitors best 3 results from the 4 events held at Bough Beech, Hythe and Saltwood, Downs and Thorpe Bay.

The series started on 7th March at Bough Beech Sailing club with a 1 day event to get things started for both the Travellers Trophy Series and the Eastern Area Mini-series, the event was held in a gusty force 2-5 with plenty of sunshine. It all came down to the last race with Nick Grace needing to beat Stu Jones for the event. Unfortunately Nick managed to misjudge the start, arrived too early, hit the pin and capsized. The rest of the fleet headed off for a tight race in plenty of breeze. Stu won and took the event with Mr Grace 2nd overall.

It was then onto Hythe & Saltwood Sailing Club on the 17th May with a day that started light and fickle with the wind building throughout the day to produce 20+ knots and a lumpy sea. This event was won by local sailor Tom Coley, with Tony Cook second and Peter Noble third.

For the third event of the miniseries it was on to Downs Sailing Club with a light wind forecast for the day, it all started with tea drinking and talks of the good old days before a sea breeze appeared and racing finally commenced at 12:30. This event gave us another winner in the name of Adrian Smith with Chris Boshier second and Dave Adams close behind on points for third.

The final showdown was to be held at the delectable Thorpe Bay Yacht Club, so on a beautifully sunny weekend with 3 out of the top 4 competitors making this event, the final results were only decided on the last race of the last event. Peter Noble was the eventual winner of the series with a 1st at Thorpe Bay, Chris Boshier was second overall and the third place spot was taken by Tony Cook.

This was the first attempt at an eastern mini-series that used 2 of the events from the Travellers trophy series and 2 additional one day events and was deemed by all to be a success with a number of new faces taking part from the local clubs including the two young lads David Hopper and Harry Boygle from Thorpe Bay who kept up with the pace until the wind gave the advantage to the larger pie eating and Ale supping oldies.

Overall Results: