Hansa GUL VR Series 2020 - Week 3

by David Durston 11 May 2020 14:32 BST 5 May 2020

The event is three weeks in and there has been a different person in first place every week, but overall the tables for the series are starting to shake out. That said, there are still seven events to go, and there are some strong contenders in the running.

As we have gone along a few new people have got involved, including the current Liberty class world champion, Bob Schahinger, who's logging in at 11pm to play.

Before I go on to reveal the positions as they stand at the end of week 3, I'd like to announce the winners of a few spot prizes. Each person with receive £30 GUL vouchers. The prizes that are being awarded this time are as follows:

• Paul Phillips will receive an award for his exceptional performance in week 2; 5 wins out of 8.

• Peter Etherton and Mary Duffy both get an award for outstanding performances. Peter recorded his first 1st place in week 2, and Mary achieved her highest place yet in week 2 race 5, a 4th.

• Ivor Barratt receives an award for multitasking. While playing the game, hosting the Zoom meeting, and drinking coffee; Ivor also managed to take a telephone call as well.

• Lastly, Kate Whyatt receives a prize for the best decorated boat. She's clearly been practicing and has spent some of her virtual coins on making her boat personalised with some sunshine.

Week 2 took the same format as week 1 with 4 races using a Star, and 4 using the J70. There were 19 people competing this week, so using the maximum point system, there were lots of points to play for. Paul Phillips had an outstanding week, taking 5 first places and adding 72 points to his series total and knocking Mike Everitt off the top spot. Alan and Natalia Hillman competed for the first time this week and put in some great results to finish second on the day. So overall after week 2 of the series positions have changed: Paul Phillips 1st; Mike Everitt 2nd; and David Durston 3rd.

On week 3 we had 20 sailors on the start line, and most were on Zoom too. There was a lot of banter. Today proved to be Rory McKinna's day, a promising young sailor who is missing Paraworld sailing during this lock down. In previous weeks he had been plagued by connection issues at his home in Scotland, but finding a good link in his poly tunnel, he managed two 1st places and a 2nd which helped to move him from 4th to 2nd overall. Paul and David managed to hold on to 1st and 3rd respectively, with Mike dropping to 4th after an uncharacteristic performance where he picked up lots of penalties.

It is all poised for an interesting battle, with Paul leading on 204, Rory on 193, David on 191, and Mike has 183 with 12 races counting. The 4th event will take place on Tuesday.