55th Eskimo Pursuit Race at Blackpool and Fleetwood Yacht Club

by Mike Preston 3 Jan 2017 14:27 GMT 31 December 2016

Blackpool and Fleetwood Yacht Club held their 55th Eskimo pursuit race on New Year's Eve.

Team Rooster's Andy McKee and Chris Massey walk the tight rope to win the 55th Eskimo Pursuit race. 29 boats were greeted with 9-13 knot breeze on the last day of 2016 at Blackpool and Fleetwood Yacht Club. Andy and Chris set off flying in the Scorpion chasing the leading pack which included Chris Robinson in his Solo and John Hayes/ Poppy James in their GP14.

John quickly recovered a tricky situation to release his GP14 from a loose anchor line when rounding buoy No. 12. Andy was also tided onto the same line, wrapped round his fixed rudder; where he proceeded to vault off the transom to walk the tight rope down off his rudder and flip back into the Scorpion with a display of acrobatics that would have impressed Blackpool circus.

Timing couldn't have been more critical as Mike Preston and David Manifold found the gears in their Flying Fifteen to set up a six boat race including Steve Blackburn in a Streaker with only 5 minutes left on the clock against an ebbing tide and shifty winds.

It was Andy McKee and Chris Massey's Scorpion that popped out in front, closely followed by Mike Preston and Dave Manifold in the Flying Fifteen. John Hayes/ Poppy James gained third place in their GP14 and Chris Robinson securing fourth place in the Solo.

Thanks to our race officer Peter Mountain for a challenging course on the River Wyre and our sponsor's Rooster Sailing for the prizes awarded to the top 10 places.

Chris Robinson was the winner of the first Single Hander, Peter Jackson earned the price for first Merlin Rocket and Rob Mountain received the prize for the first Multi hull.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Class	Helm	Crew
1	2026	Scorpion	Andy McKee	Chris Massey
2	3641	Flying Fifteen	Mike Preston	David Manifold
3	14188	GP14	John Hayes	Poppy James
4	5449	Solo	Chris Robinson
5	1881	Streaker	Ste Blackburn
6	140	RS100 8.4	Robert Richardson
7	1147	Supernova	Iain Wilson
8	1145	Supernova	Pete May
9	1434	Phantom	Martin Knott
10	1155	RS400	Nick Holt	Derek Hill
11	133336	Laser	Malcolm Marsden
12	172366	Laser	Nick Powell
13	201073	Laser Radial	Glyn Purnell
14	22901	Enterprise	Paul Young	Aimee Allsopp
15	191313	Laser 4.7	Adam Din
16	3755	Merlin‑Rocket	Peter Jackson	Andy Airnes
17	460	RS400	David Wilkinson	John Counsell
18	3493	Merlin	Michael Hamilton	Paul Reid
18	2663	Merlin‑Rocket	Chris Haworth	Jonathan Clarke
20	153779	Laser	Simon Davis
21	210264	Laser Radial	Joel James
22	1181	Osprey	Willy Crichton	Ian Horsfall
23	6924	Dart 18	Robert Mountain	David Guite
24	6558	Dart 18	Ian Brooker	Chris Pimlott
25	15035	Fireball	Stephen Jones	Sarah Edwards
26	865	Laser Vago	Christopher Lamb
27	13700	GP14	Ralph Haliburton‑Chaplin	Adam Chaplin
28	Club	Laser 2000	Ian Wilson	Georgie Wilson
29	4878	Dart 18	Keith Wearing	Nigel Edmondson