D-Zeros at the Grafham Grand Prix
by D-Zero Class Association 6 Jan 2017 09:36 GMT
2 January 2017
Ian Morgan at the Grafham Grand Prix © Tim Olin /
www.olinphoto.co.uk
An impressive turnout of 22 D-Zeros, 14 visitors and 8 home boats, entered the 2017 Grafham Grand Prix, more than 10% of the total entry of 192 boats.
Conditions were ideal, with constant sunshine and 10-12 knots of breeze from the North West.
The D-Zeros raced in the Medium fleet, which consisted of 73 boats, with the D-Zeros being the slowest class in that fleet. The tail-end Fireballs, Merlins and Flying Fifteens were a constant hazard and it was important to find clear lanes and avoid the associated wind shadows. Despite the mix of boats the D-Zeros experienced close racing throughout their own fleet.
In race 1 the familiar battle was between National Champion Ian Morgan and Rob Lennox at the front of the fleet. Eventually it was newcomer to the fleet Chris Wright who picked up a nice right hand shift on the final windward leg to take the win, with Rob 2nd, Ian 3rd and David Summerville having a strong charge at the finish to take 4th, and Jon Cowper also having a good race to finish 5th.
In race 2 Ian had another good start from the middle of the line, with Mandy Sweet pushing for the lead throughout the race, and taking the lead upwind at times. David, Chris and Rob battled closely throughout the race, with plenty of place changing. At the end Ian took the win, with David finishing strongly again to pip Mandy for 2nd by 1 second, with Chris 4th and Rob in 5th.
For race 3 David had a good mid-line start and navigated the first leg well to lead for the entire race, though with Ian pushing hard for the lead at times. At the finish it was David who took the gun from Ian, with Rob in 3rd, Class Chairman Paul Jefferies in 4th and Chris in 5th.
D-Zero Results: (fleet positions in brackets, full results can be found here)
1st Ian Morgan (21st)
2nd David Summerville (23rd)
3rd Rob Lennox (29th)
4th Chris Wright (30th)
5th Mandy Sweet (33rd)
6th Jon Cowper (34th)
7th Paul Jefferies (36th)
8th Tom Southwell (37th)
9th Paul Murphy (38th)
10th Neil Washington (39th)
11th Nigel Austin (40th)
12th Stuart Brown (43rd)
13th Gordon Stewart (45th)
14th Ben Stevens (49th)
15th Ed Deacon (50th)
16th Jamie Southwell (51st)
17th Rob Campbell (52nd)
18th Kevin Moll (54th)
19th Joe Constable (58th)
20th Will Deutsch (62nd)
21st Jeremy Carey (69th)
21st Alistair Hill (69th)