Harken 29er Grand Prix at Royal Torbay Yacht Club
by Freya Black 25 Mar 2019 05:59 GMT
23-24 March 2019
Harken 29er Grand Prix at Torbay © UK 29er Class Association
The not-so-sunny South West coast brought light winds (6-13 knots) and rain for Saturday.
Wind from the cliffs created a right shift on most beats allowing for boats with good starts to gain from this. Consistent racing from 2787, Ewan and Fin, with a few cheeky bands of pressure put them in first overall overnight. Great racing from the girls in 2905, Elodie and Hannah, and the girls in 2347, Freya and Millie, put them at second and third on equal points overnight.
Torbay produced the champagne sailing we were all expecting on Sunday even teasing the chance of a sea breeze. A shifty and gusty day was dominated by 2816, Henry and Louis, getting four bullets pushing them up to second overall. However, Ewan and Fin did not let them get away scoring a 2,7,7,2 to remain in the lead and win yet another Grand Prix.
Freya and Millie kept their consistency putting them third overall and first girls. Second girls were Elodie and Hannah with third girls and third juniors 2292, Sian Talbot and Maddie Bristow. 2695, Flo Peters and Freddy Wood were first mixed with 1122, Alice Senior and Dan Wright taking second mixed. Third Mixed were 2514, Ben Batchelor and Lucy Hewitson. IRL 2873, Rian McDonnel-Geraghty and Nathan van Steenberge, were first juniors. Second juniors were 2898, Aled Llewelyn-Jones and Ben Willett.
It was great to see so many newcomers and the Irish boats this weekend. Big thanks to the race officer in very difficult conditions as well as Royal Torbay Yacht Club and all the volunteers.