The Grafham Water Sailing Club Catamaran Open Meeting
by Bob Carter 21 Oct 2015 20:52 BST
17-18 October 2015
A total of 93 boats took part in the Grafham Cat Open which was open to all Catamaran Classes making this the biggest 2015 Cat Open in the UK. Many classes used the event as their last traveller of the Summer and also a number of Inland Championships were run in the event.
On Saturday the force 4-5 Northerly breeze made for some exhilarating sailing and on the Sunday the F2-3 breeze gave the lighter crews a chance.
The following is a summary of the results.
The Sprint 15s were the largest fleet with 29 entries for their Inland Championships. Grafham sailor Stuart Snell won the event (3,2,1,1,3) from Thomas Sandal also of Grafham and Jim Bowie of Thorpe Bay was third.
See full Sprint 15 results
The Fast Double handicap class had 17 entries including 10 Formula 18s. The F18 of Grant Piggott and Adam May from Weston were the winners (1,1,1,3,2) from the F18 of David White and Arron Reynolds from Thorpe Bay.
The Spitfire Inland Championships had 14 entries mostly from the Youth Fleet. The over-riding winners were Jack Butters and James King (of Parkstone & Brightlingsea) who won all six races. In second place was Olly and Ben Harris of Weston and third were Alex Philpott and Jess D'Arcy of Datchet.
See full Fast Double/Single and Spitfire results (Alpha course)
The Dart 18 Inland Championship had 14 entries and the winners were Mike Gomme and Sara Stones (2,1,1,1,2) of RBBSC and runners up only one point behind were Matt and Jacob Exxon of Bridlington.
The Fast Single handicap class consisted of nine A Class catamarans and a single Shadow X. The results were dominated by that Shadow, sailed by Robin Leather (Gurnard), who won all 6 races comfortably. The top A Class sailor in second place was Michael Barnes (WWSC) with (2,2,2,4,5) and third place was taken by Ben Daigneault of Eastbourne who was 2 points further back.
The Medium handicap class of nine boats included seven Catapults. The winner was the Catapult of Gareth Ede (1,1,1,1,1.5) of Yorkshire Dales followed at some distance by Chris Phillips (CCA) and Syd Gage (Bridlington) both also sailing Catapults.
See full Dart 18 and Medium handicap results (Bravo course)
All six races were run promptly on both race tracks with the slick race management that Graham is well known for.
A record 150 sailors and spectators stayed for the excellent dinner on Saturday night and many enjoyed watching the Rugby which was on TV late afternoon and evening making it a highly enjoyable weekend for all.