Flying Fifteen Inland Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

by Richard Drabble 6 Jun 2019 10:21 BST 1-2 June 2019

The UK's competitive Flying Fifteen fleet was in full force at Rutland Sailing Club who hosted the Inland Championships this weekend, with top sailors including national and world champions on the circuit.

This two-day event comprised three races each day, so six races in all, best five to count. The sparkling and wonderfully scenic sailing conditions were nicely varied, from light to moderate on Saturday, a nice shakedown for some, to moderate to fresh on Sunday, up to 22 knots from the south-southwest, making for a good work-out upwind and some marginal planing conditions downwind. And mostly sunshine with relief from the rays by some welcome cumulus and cirrus cloud cover.

The twenty-three Flying Fifteens on the line made for exciting starts, with the usual cut and thrust for a pole position at full speed. Given the wind and direction the Race Officer went for straight windward-leeward courses both days, with three long beats per race. His race team and their rescue and shore support did a fabulous job and we are all indebted to them for making the weekend a huge success and an enjoyable one too.

The fleet was delighted to have Ovington Boats aboard, with Graham Vials and MD Chris Turner essentially dominating Day One and the first race of Day Two. However a push from other top sailors forced a nice mix of top results from Jeremy Davy/Martin Huett of Draycote and both Andy and father David McKee of Dovestone with their respective partners-in-crime Richard Jones and Mal Hartland pushing through to score highly, whilst World Champion Steve Goacher with Tim Harper warmed up to a final race victory on Sunday's race three. This warm-up, however, was not quite fast enough to put Steve and Tim into the top four.

The hospitality at Rutland was enjoyed by all the competitors with the K1 Open Meeting fleet sharing the party, comprising Pimms and pizza after the racing and a sit-down dinner in Rutland's clubhouse, not to mention full English breakfasts, lunches, teas and real filter coffees galore, with everyone's thanks to the club's catering team. At the dinner it was noted jovially that the crew combinations ranged from mere spring chickens to a combined age of over 140 years! No names mentioned.

And it was not stated, but the crew weights and genders also ranged widely, proving overall that Uffa Fox's masterpiece, the world's first planing keelboat is not only alive and well but an exciting boat for everyone to sail! If you are not sailing a Flying Fifteen, you are missing out big time! Here's to the late and great Mr Uffa Fox, designer of many famous dinghies and keelboats, whose brief for the Flying Fifteen back in 1947 was for a fast, planing keelboat of about twenty feet, fit for the rough and tumble waters of The Solent. And boy, did he design a good'un.

Happily there were no dings, nor any protests, and everyone departed fit to fight another day.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Club	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1	4071	DRSC	Graham Vials	Chris Turner	1	1	2	1	‑6	5	10
2	3760	Draycote Water SC	Jeremy Davy	Martin Huett	3	4	1	2	2	‑6	12
3	4005	Dovestone Sailing Club	Andy McKee	Richard Jones	‑6	6	3	4	1	2	16
4	4065	Dovestone SC	David McKee	Mal Hartland	4	2	4	‑7	3	4	17
5	4021		Steve Goacher	Tim Harper	5	7	(BFD)	3	4	1	20
6	4055	Chew Valley Lake	I Cadwallader	S Graham	7	3	‑11	5	5	3	23
7	4061	West Riding SC	Mark Weston	Josh Porter	2	5	‑16	9	9	12	37
8	4046	Rutland Sailing Club	Richard Drabble	Richard Pratt	‑16	8	15	6	8	8	45
9	3902	Draycote Water SC	Richard Hope	Mike Stenson	8	‑13	9	8	13	11	49
10	3936	Notts County SC	Jeremy Arnold	Keith Jamieson	11	‑16	13	11	10	7	52
11	4056	Dovestone Sc	Andy Goddard	Tom Goddard	12	14	6	12	‑16	10	54
12	3996	Basenthwaite	Mike Moore	Kavla Sheard	9	9	7	16	14	(RET)	55
13	4013	Northampton SC	Chris Bowen	Marlow Bowen	(DNC)	15	10	14	7	9	55
14	3865	Rutland Sailing Club	Nick Clarke	Pete Ashworth	‑20	10	12	10	12	14	58
15	4016	Royal Windermere YC	David Heron	Chris Ducker	10	11	5	19	15	(RET)	60
16	3959	Rutland Sailing Club	Richard Triffitt	Pat Triffitt	13	18	8	‑20	19	16	74
17	3631	Rutland Sailing Club	Chris Wright	Nicky Hooper	‑22	12	18	15	17	13	75
18	3911	Benl Sailing Assoc	John Wardrop	Mark Munday	19	22	14	13	11	(DNC)	79
19	3583	RORC	Mike Wilczynski	Jean Wilczynski	15	‑21	19	17	20	15	86
20	4041	Bewl Sailing Ass	Simon Cooper	Alastair Cooper	17	19	17	18	18	(RET)	89
21	3732	Blackpool SC	Ian Hockey	Jal Hockey	18	17	21	21	(RET)	DNC	101
22	3341	Dachet Sailing Club	Mike Firth	Philip Tinsley	14	20	20	(DNC)	DNC	DNC	102
23	3944	Rutland Sailing Club	Alistair Scammell	Amanda Strawson	21	23	(BFD)	RET	DNC	DNC	116