Vintage Merlin DeMay series event at Fishers Green Sailing Club

by Godfrey Clark 15 May 2019 13:26 BST 11 May 2019

With an ideal northerly wind direction, the home boats were joined by a disappointing number of visitors. The race team had no trouble setting a true beat the full length of the lake giving a 1.2 km upwind leg with two runs and a reach to complete the lap.

The course remained similar for the afternoon race with the breeze giving occasional strong gusts to promote some flat out planing under spinnaker and the long beat holding true. Bad Dog was first to lead but scooped up a boatload of water in a sudden gust, leaving Nutshell to claim the win, chased to the finish by Hamlet and Shogun.

It had been a super day's racing in a fleet of boats which had mostly been rescued from death row. One had been earmarked for the bonfire, one for a garden planter and one rescued from a council refuse tip. All now rebuilt, updated and racing hard as the designers intended

Thanks to George in the rescue boat for the photos in the gallery above.

Overall Results:

Pos	Boat	Sail No	Club	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1st	Nutshell	1742	Fishers Green	Jon Steward	Annabelle Steward	‑2	2	1	3
1st	Hamlet	3185	Fishers Green SC	Chris Hill	Gabe Hill	‑4	1	2	3
3rd	Bad Dog	3232	Fishers Green SC	Godfrey Clark	Louis Lappage	1	(DNC)	4	5
4th	Shogun	3055	Fishers Green SC	Nick Yannakoyorgos	Matteo Mancini	3	‑5	3	6
5th	Masquarade	995	Tamesis	Mathew Jones	Rosie Jones	‑7	3	5	8
6th	Cream Cracker	2997	Fishers Green SC	Paul Rayson	Claire Bancroft	6	4	‑7	10
7th	Passion	3314	Fishers Green SC	Richard Coulter	Nathan Allen	5	7	(DNF)	12
7th	Patriot	3216	Fishers Green SC	Steve Conroy	Roberto Mancini	‑8	6	6	12
9th	Attila the Hunt	2410		Ian Lamb	Andrew Hunt	‑9	8	8	16