29er Winter Championship and Harken GP5 at Draycote Water Sailing Club

29er Winter Championship at Draycote Water © Paul Hammett

29er Winter Championship at Draycote Water © Paul Hammett

29er Winter Championship at Draycote Water © Paul Hammett

The 29er Winter Championship and Harken GP5 were held at Draycote on 4/5 February with a forecast that suggested that there might not be much racing.

As the fleet rigged up no more than 2-3 knots of wind was detected and many sailors huddled in the warm clubhouse. However, with a slight delay the D flag was raised and Race Officer Ian Bullock got to work. That he managed to get in 8 races over the weekend was a great credit to the Race Team. On Saturday the wind blew between 4-8 knots from the South East, with the 4th race shortened at the last windward mark as the breeze swung and died. Meanwhile on Sunday the wind was from the North and slightly stronger and steadier, aside from the last gate of the last race when the fleet from 11th and higher arrived together.

Dan and Fin Armstrong dominated the event with a fantastic display of light wind sailing, counting 1,1,1,4,4,4, 13 discarding 18th to win with a race to spare. Not a single boat managed a top 10 in every race. The battle for second was between Nick Robins / Billy V-O and James Hammett / James Eales and decided on the last race which Nick/Billy won adding that 1st to a 3,5,7,7,11,12 to count from James/James 2,2,5,6,6,8, 20 to count. Behind this pair only 10 points covered the next 5 boats with new pairing Hattie Rogers / Emily Covell taking 4th overall and first all girls narrowly from 5th placed and first mixed pair Sarah Jarman and Nick Deverux. 6th place and 2nd Girls went to Freya Black and Orla Mitchell. Morgan Archer and Hakan Digby were first placed Juniors in 8th overall.

After a tough weekend of racing with rapid turn arounds between the races it was great to see some newer faces at the front with almost half of the sailors in the top 12 being girls. The next Harken GP6 is at Pwllheli in March before the Youth Nationals / exams break. GP 7 will be in Largs for the Northern contingent and Torbay for the Southern area and the Final round GP 8 is at HISC in July.

Overall Results: