Heron Southern Championships at Chipstead Sailing Club

Saturday 4th June 2006, at Chipstead Sailing Club on a glorious sunny day the Heron Association Southern Championships got under way. Light winds from North West. 12 boats took to the water with a committee boat start at the East end of the lake. Martin Treadway led from the start with Peter Moulton vying for second place with Mike Picket and Nigel Darby in fourth. Jon Hunt was in fifth with the rest of the fleet spread out, having many private battles, which saw many changes of place. At the finish after 3 laps Martin Treadway came in 1st, Peter Moulton 2nd, a long way back, 3rd. Mike Picket, 4th Nigel Darby.

After lunch with another committee boat start the wind was again light form North West. At the 1st windward mark the same five boats were having a tussle to be first round, Martin Treadway made it. On the run down the lake there was nothing in it. On the 2nd lap Martin Treadway got away just ahead of Peter Moulton with the others strung out widely, Nigel Darby, Mike Picket then Jon Hunt. On the next run down Nigel flew his spinnaker and overtook Mike Picket. On the 3rd beat up the lake the wind dropped, Martin sat in a hole and Nigel slipped past into 1st place with Mike Picket 2nd, Martin 3rd and Peter Moulton 4th. Martin Teadway and Mike Picket now had 4 points each. The last race would be the decider.

The last race started from the race hut with a short beat to the windward mark. Martin Treadway just made it in front of Jon Hunt. A long run down the lake with five boats in a bunch. All appeared to round the leeward mark together in very dirty wind. Martin and Jon managed to pull away into clear wind for the beat up the lake. The wind dropped again and all slowed down. As time was short the OOD decided to shorten the race and Mike Picket slipped through the fleet with his own wind to finish in front very near the pontoons, Nigel Darby 2nd, Jon Hunt 3rd, Peter Moulton 4th, and Martin Treadway 5th.

Overall Results: