Byte Open at Frampton on Severn Sailing Club
by John Saunders 14 Oct 2015 14:55 BST
11 October 2015
Bytes at Frampton © John Saunders
Conditions were tricky for the Bytes at Frampton on Severn on Sunday October 11. There was an autumn chill in the wind which was variable in both strength and direction. Nine Bytes shared the event with lesser numbers of Enterprise and Mirrors.
In race one young Ryan Bush was very quick off the line and established a good lead over Louis Saunders and Rick Whitehouse. Ryan made good use of his athletic style and light weight leading for the first two laps but such was the trombone nature of the wind that Louis and Rick managed to close up and at the line it was Ryan, Louis, Rick at only half second intervals!
Race two was sailed back to back and Louis sailed carefully avoiding some of Frampton's holes and dead patches to take the lead and win from Ryan and Rick. Watching from a distance it was interesting to see boats making considerable gains and losses on the fickle wind which would at its own discretion favour sailors at random, withdrawing its services at usually inopportune moments!
Now lunch. As usual the Byte helms ate heartily Before embarking on Race three. The wind had not improved over lunch and it was common to see two boats only meters apart with one hiking fully with the other sitting in. Rick led from the line keeping Louis at bay until the end with Ryan in third.
This meant that taking discards into account Louis, Ryan or Rick could win the day. As it turned out Louis won Race four from Rick with local Sarah Kirk now in third, Andy Sant fourth and Ryan back in fifth.
Over the course of the season wind conditions for the Bytes have been as variable as the venues. From a good blast at Haversham, fabulous open water sailing for the Nationals at Western, fiddling round the island at Emberton and the variable winds of Frampton. All good sailing and with a steady increase in numbers. Things are looking good!
Frampton should have been the season end but there is now an extra event at Bowmoor on 30th October. Bowmoor has 12 mainly young Byte sailors and in view of this there will be a training day on Friday 30th then an additional open race on Saturday 31st. For aspiring Byte sailors this is not to be missed! See the Byte UK Class Association facebook group for further details.
Overall Results:
1st Louis Saunders (Combs SC) (2), 1, 2, 1, 4pts
2nd Rick Whitehouse (Combs SC) (3), 3, 1, 2, 6pts
3rd Ryan Bush (BCYC) 1, 2, 3, (5), 6pts
4th Sarah Kirk (Frampton) (4), 4, 4, 3, 11pts
5th Andrew Sant (Combs SC) 5, 5, (6), 4, 14pts
6th Maggie Futcher (Weston SC) 6, 6, (8), 8, 20pts
7th Angela Oakley (Haversham SC) (8), 8, 7, 7, 22pts
8th L Bennet (Frampton) (11), 11, 5, 6, 22pts
9th Gary Hogan (Emberton) 7, 7, (9), 9, 23pts