505 East Coast Championships at Shotley Sailing Club

Glorious weather, friendly reception, and several new faces in the fleet - just a shame about the football, really! With a NE breeze, F2 freshening to F3-4 on Saturday. Race officer Doug Brown got us away on time, and we had two good races on a longish windward-leeward course, and got ashore more or less in time for 4pm.

An unfortunate collision put Ian Pavey & Neil Manning out of the event from the start; good seamanship got them back home with a big hole in the bow tank, past all those huge ships. Meanwhile, the rest of us quickly discovered that the left side of the course was best, but the optimium reach-run angles were more difficult to find. After going the wrong way initially, Charlie Walters and Dougal Cram made up a lot of ground downwind to take the lead on the second run. In the second race they were in control all the way, followed by local aces Terry Scutcher and Christian Diebitsch, both crews pulling out a distance on the pursuing boats.

There was less wind on Sunday, and the race officer had to wait for the later launchers, who got stuck behind a hi-speed ferry.....as you do...! Nevertheless the scheduled three races were held, some of the time with trapezing. Walters/Cram continued in great style, and generally had the better of their main rivals, Scutcher/Diebitsch. Martin Hodgson & Adrian Miles confirmed their consistency behind them in third place, and Chris Dando & Donald Sloan were finding impressive form in their new boat (first time on the water). Rob Napier and Kimball Morrison, sailing together for their first regatta in 6 years, put in some impressive first beats. However, stars of the day were Richard Williams (in his first 505 event) and John 'Munster' Davies (of 1970's fame). They won race four in style, and held the lead for much of the one-lap sprint final race.

The prizes were distributed imaginatively through the fleet. And our thanks go to Shotley SC and all the helpers who assisted with race management; served food on Saturday evening; and of course manned the bar during penalties...!

Overall Results: (5 races, 4 to count)

1 8835 Charlie Walters/ Dougal Cram Datchet SC 1 1 1 4 1 = 4pts
2 8881 Terry Scutcher/Christian Diebitsch Shotley SC 3 2 2 2 4 = 9pts
3 8378 Martin Hodgson/Adrian Miles Stone SC 2 3 10 3 5 = 13pts
4 8909 Chris Dando/Donald Sloan Stone SC 6 5 3 6 3 = 17pts
5 8678 Richard Williams/John Davies Royal Harwich YC 7 9 9 1 2 = 19pts
6 8701 Rob Napier/Kimball Morrison Bowmoor SC 4 6 6 5 6
7 8305 Tony Power/Duncan MacDonald Stour SC dnf 8 5 8 7
8 8694 Ross & Adam Kenney Burton SC 5 4 12 9 12
9 8526 Tim Bird/Damon Smith Burton SC 8 11 7 7 8
10 8381 Matt Hart/Paul Ross Shotley SC 9 10 4 11 13
11 8885 Ben Iliffe/Simon Lake Hayling Island SC 10 7 13 12 9
12 8419 Steve Perkins/James Brown Blackwater SC dnc dnc 8 10 10
13 8510 Andrew Thorp/Nick Thorp Shotley SC 11 13 11 13 dns
14 8887 Tom Clayton/Mo Benner Shotley SC 14 14 14 14 15
15 7800 Hugh Feilden/Richard Symes Southwold SC 13 15 17 15 14
16 7553 Ian Sharp/Mike Arthur Royal Harwich YC 12 12 15 dnf dns
17 8532 Greg & Mary Brown Southwold SC dnc dnc 16 16 11
18 8231 Ian Pavey/Neil Manning Stour SC dnf dnc dnc dnc dnc