Gul B14 National Championship at Restronguet Sailing Club - Day 1
by Nick Craig 5 May 2019 06:46 BST
The B14 Nationals are hosted by the very friendly Restronguet Sailing Club with a three very different races on day one.
We launched in a nice force 4 which clapped out to a force 2 with holes by the start of the race. Anthill Mob (Tim Harrison/Jonny Ratcliffe) showed their light wind prowess again to win from Harken (Nick Craig/Tobytastic Lewis) from the fast recovering Team GUL/North Sails (Mark Barnes/Char Horlock) in a photo finish with Demelza (Peter Knight/James Wilkinson) after taking their a 360 penalty after a coming together with Harken at the windward mark!
The wind dropped further for race 2 and was very shifty. Team GUL/North Sails sailed a great race to hold a healthy lead until Harken got some lucky pressure turn a 5 minute deficit to win in next to no wind with the Anthill Mob a while later having recovered to 3rd from going the wrong way on an impossibly hard to call first beat, just taking Brightmile (Mark Watts/Stig Rogers) on the last beat.
The wind then died to nothing and with the race officer Phil Slater hoisting AP over I (proceed to race inside), we all thought it was beer o'clock. However, the race officer had spotted some wind in the estuary and we were greeted by a 15 knot Northerly and sunshine, glorious! Harken loving their return to the B14 won from Asbo (Crispin Taylor/Ralph Singleton) who comfortably held 2nd all race from Demelza and Team GUL/North Sails in another photo finish as Demelza took the nod coming in on a huge breeze line.
After a long day, we were welcomed ashore with free pasta, free beer and a BBQ as the sun set Thanks to our sponsors Gul, Visit Cornwall and North Sails
There will be some exciting tracker, video and photos online from VR Sport. Tomorrow is looking to be a light one and possibly a real snakes and ladders event. With all to play for, Harken has the edge with four teams in close contention behind led by Team GUL/North Sails.