Roadford Rocket 2017 at Roadford Lake Sailing Club

by Richard Willows 27 Feb 2017 16:52 GMT 26 February 2017

Reports of imminent heavy weather heading south from storm Ewen over Ireland caused the organisers some anxiety, resulting in the start time been brought forward to 11:30am and the race duration shortened to 2 hours.

Quite a number of potential entries felt the long journey would not be worthwhile, but those that took the risk were rewarded with an excellent 2 hr race sailed in conditions that were on the limit for most.40 boats took to the start, with 30 finishers. The south-westerly wind gave up wind and downwind legs the whole length of the reservoir, just under 3 km each way!

Luca Guyon was first away in a laser 4.7 seven minutes ahead of the main start of the Solo of Richard Frost from Sutton Bingham, followed by the Lasers, Supernovas and then a big fleet of RS aeros. Last off were the Foiling Moths of Chris Tilbrook and Dan Ellis,69min later. For the first hour, conditions were moderately manageable, with the laser of Ben Flower, laser radial Chris Jones leading, followed by Peter Barton, Aero 7, and Iain Horlock in the Supernova, with the Solo hanging on, but with the two Fireballs from Portishead closing quickly. The second hour showed the winding increasing with some very tricky gusts particularly at the dam end of the reservoir. The laser 4.7 was overwhelmed crossing the line for the second time, and quite a number of others became casualties.

As the race progressed there was clearly a hectic battle at the front with the laser of Ben flower, the Aero of Peter Barton and the supernova of Ian Horlock swapping places, but by the end of lap 4 the Fireball of Chris and John Gill had moved into the lead, with their clubmates Colin and Derek Jarvis close behind. At this stage, the racing had become attritional, with some capsizing on the beat, others at the gybe marks and others finding the heat downwind too much, but most had some amazing speed sailing in the gusts on the long broad reach down the lake. Chris and John Gill showed exemplary control up wind and downwind, finding good spots to gybe and thoroughly deserved their win. Dan Ellis showed some excellent sailing in his foiling moth, and despite his misgivings over his sail juice PY, might well have been at the front had he not had a tangle with the outer distance mark!

Half an hour after competitors came ashore, the weather closed in with nasty gusts and driving rain, which dampened down spirits a little, but there was a good supply of burgers and hot drinks from the mobile caterer. Many thanks are due to Exe Sails for again sponsoring the event, the centre staff at Roadford Lake Watersports centre for manning the rescue boats, and all the sailing club members who came and helped out on the day, either in reception, in the race box, or sitting in a rescue boat! Thanks also to RS sailing who provided three charter boats, which increased a number of Aeros to 10 on the water. This was the second event in the South West challenge series, the last event being the Wimbleball Beastie on March 19th.

Overall Results:

Pos	Class	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	Pts
1	Fireball	15083	Chris Gill	John Gill	Portishead	1
2	Fireball	14708	Colin Jarvis	Derek Jarvis	Portishead	2
3	RS Aero 7	2093	Peter Barton		Lymington Town SC	3
4	Laser	210631	Ben Flower		Starcross	4
5	Supernova	1092	Iain Horlock		Exe	5
6	Hornet	2108	Richard	Sam	Starcross	6
7	Phantom	14	Simon Hawkws		Wimbleball	7
8	RS500	518	Mike Way	Anne Way	Starcross	8
9	RS Aero 7	1637	Greg Bartlett		Starcross	9
10	Laser radial	210262	chris Jones		Sutton Bingham	10
11	RS Aero 7	2	Ben Rolfe		Burghfield	11
12	Fireball	14789	Hannah Showell	James Beer	Starcross	12
13	Rs400	727	Bob Warren	Jack Warren	Restronget	13
14	Osprey	1356	Emma Stevenson	Simon Hawks	Wimbleball	14
15	Rs400	6	Dave Stockton	Paul Birbeck	Wimbleball	15
16	RS Aero 7	2001	dan Bridger		Exe	16
17	Blaze	803	Hugh Kingdom		North Devon YC	17
18	RS Aero 7	2134	Darren Roach		RNSA	18
19	RS Aero 5	1312	Andrew Frost		Sutton Bingham	19
20	RS Aero 5	1457	David Mahony		Lymington Town SC	20
21	RS Aero 7	2157	Nigel Rolfe		Burghfield	21
22	Solo	4901	Richard Frost		Sutton Bingham	22
23	Finn	603	Grant Simmons		Starcross	23
24	Int Moth	4501	Dan Ellis		Yealm	24
25	RS Aero 7	2133	Kevin Reed		RLSC	25
26	Laser	180229	Mike Taylor		RLSC	26
27	Redwing	249	Eric Evans	Karen Raymont	North Devon YC	27
28	Rs400	1097	Mark Swan	Paul Raven	Exe	28
29	Supernova	702	Bern Harvey		RLSC	29
30	Laser radial	197782	Richard Heaton		Sutton Bingham	30
31	Laser 4.7	1	Luca Guyon		RLSC	31
31	Laser radial	5	Billy Kingdom		RLSC	31
31	Int Canoe	242	Ed Bremner		RLSC	31
31	Rs400	411	Richard Cain		Starcross	31
31	Blaze	797	Mike Holmes		Paington	31
31	RS Aero 7	2146	James Clapham		Royal Torbay	31
31	Blaze	607	Laurence Maunder		Wimbleball	31
31	INT Moth	3875	Chris Tilbrook		Starcross	31
31	Supernova	1061	Norman Halstead		RLSC	31
31	29er	346	Ellie Hutchings	Ellie Poole	RLSC	31

More photos are available on the Roadford Lake Sailing Club Facebook group.

Richard Willows, Roadford Lake sailing club.