Firefly Open at Spinnaker Sailing Club
by Tom Clay 4 Nov 2019 06:14 GMT
3 November 2019
Stuart and Elizabeth Hudson lead again during the Spinnaker Firefly Open © Jane Hudson
The second day of the Spinnaker Firefly Weekend for the Firefly Open Meeting dawned as a total contrast to the first. Whilst the Twisted Tube Random pairs had been cancelled due to winds of Force 6 gusting 9, sailors arrived on Sunday to no wind but welcome sun.
Fortunately by 11am the breeze had come in and Peter May, PRO, set the fleet a series of short sharp Olympic course races. The shifty northerly breeze made the beats tricky and put a premium on boat handling. Race 1 saw the fleet pushing the line with three boats over. Stuart and daughter Elizabeth Hudson led round the windward mark from Chris Guy and Henry Keegan, but Tom Clay sailing singlehanded sailed into the lead on the first reach. The Hudsons overtook him on the final run to win the race with Guy/Keegan third.
In Race 2, four boats arrived at Mark 1 simultaneously the result of which was the Sherringtons coming out in the lead and the Hudsons doing a spin. The Sherringtons went on to win from Pank/Smith and Nigel and daughter Camilla Wakefield.
Races 3 and 4 saw the Hudsons winning from the Sherringtons with the remaining places closely contested. In Race 3 Ben Pym and Maria Stanley came third and in Race 4 Pank/Smith.
Race 5 saw a new winner with Pank/Smith sailing away to win from Nigel Wakefield, now sailing with daughter Pippa, in second and Ed Morris and Ellie Assinder in third. Elizabeth Hudson, at age 8, agreed to do the sixth and last race which they won from Pym/Stanley and then the Wakefields. This meant that the Hudsons had won the Open from the Sherringtons and Pank/Smith. Congratulations must also go to Henry Keegan who left his Oppie to crew for Chris Guy in his first Firefly races and took the opportunity to take the helm in two of the races.
Overall Results:
1. Stuart and Elizabeth Hudson, 8pts
2. Rob and Mel Sherrington, 13pts
3. Jono Pank and Lucy Smith, 16pts