Sailing Southwest Winter Series - Update

by Jonathan Miles 25 Feb 2019 21:08 GMT 4 November 2018

With six of the ten races complete, competitors in the Sailing Southwest Winter Series are heading into a final mad dash throughout March to find the 2018/19 champion. It is tight very tight at the top with just 6 points separating the top five boats.

With the discard rule of 50% rounded down and five races sailed with one cancelled, round 7, the Channel Chop is going to be crucial to the overall standings. This all-important race takes place at Portishead Y&SC on the 2nd March.

The current series leader is Ben Flower from Hayling Island SC in his Laser who is on just 2 points having won both the Wrecker and the Christmas Cracker but discarding two fifth places makes him vulnerable.

In second place is Ben and Simon Hawkes from Castle Cove SC in their Osprey on 3 points following their win at the Icicle and discarding their third place at the Rocket. Iain Horlock's second places in the two of the windiest races the Wrecker and Rocket, leaves him on 4 points, but discarding a DNS means he'll need to get some more events in to climb the table.

The remaining top places are secured by Terry Curtis and Peter Greig in their Osprey in fourth (5 points) Chris Hampe in is International Canoe in sixth (7 points) and another Osprey sailed by Colin Stephens and Mike Greig in sixth with 8 points. Incredibly, the top ten places are separated by just fifteen points.

With March bringing four events, and a total of four events to count in the series it is going to be tight to the finish, but still time for all sailors to make an impact on the series. The SSW Winter Series 2018-19 is very much anyone's to win!

Events to come:

2nd March Channel Chop at Portishead - with limited entry to 50 boats
16th March Starcross Steamer always popular with entries limited to 100
24th march Exmore Beastie at Wimbleball
30th March Torbay Tornado and Series Prize Giving

Top 20 boats after Round 6:

Position	Helm	Crew	Sail No.	Class	Club	Points
1	Ben Flower		17	Laser	Hayling Island SC	2
2	Nemo Hawkes	Simon Hawkes	135	Osprey	Castle Cove SC	3
3	Iain Horlock		2511	Contender	Exe SC	4
4	Terry Curtis	Peter Greig	1234	Osprey	Castle Cove SC	5
5	Chris Hampe		340	International Canoe	BCU	7
6	Colin Stephens	Mike Greig	1116	Osprey	Mount's Bay SC	8
7	Greg Bartlett		2600	RS Aero 9	Starcross YC	12
8	Stacey Bray		260	D‑Zero	Porthpean SC	13
9	Chris Jones		2550	RS Aero 7	Sutton Bingham SC	15
10	Noah Rees		2545	RS Aero 7	Torpoint Mosquito SC	16
11	Chris Dyer		843	Blaze	NDYC	19
12	Hans Wehmeyer	Josh Redgrave	371	Tasar	Fowey Gallents SC	20
13	Ian Mairs	Abi Campbell	508	RS 500	Bristol Corinthian YC	21
14	Paul Tatum		828	Blaze	NDYC	29
15	David Downs	Ros Downs	3698	Merlin Rocket	Tata Steel SC	31
16	Eric Evans	Various	249	Redwing	Bristol Corinthian YC	31
17	Fraser Earle	Jake Stow	3720	Merlin Rocket	Lyme Regis SC	31
18	Daniel Craner		120257	Laser	NDYC	39
19	Graham Cook		201591	Laser Radial	Lyme Regis SC	126
20	Jef Williams		22544	Enterprise	Penzance SC	126