Fireball Open at Harlow (Blackwater) Sailing Club
by Terri Sharman 17 Sep 2006 11:09 BST
9-10 September 2006
A great weekend for everyone at the annual Fireball open at Harlow Blackwater SC © Wilfy
The Club hosted its annual Fireball Open Meeting on 9 & 10 September. Numbers were down on the 22 boats that we had last year due to varying circumstances but, all in all, a very good weekend was had by everyone. The weather was excellent, a warm day on Saturday with a good force 4 or so followed by an even warmer, sunnier day on Sunday with a breeze of around force 2 – 3.
Racing was pretty spreadout on Saturday with mixed results for our own boats. Dave Islin managed to get two seconds, Marcus, with new super crew, Simon Sawyer, sailed well, as did Roger Mander with new crew, Kevin. Dave Wellum and Malcolm Carter also had mixed fortunes. Malcolm decided to jump ship and apparently Dave sailed on for at least five minutes before he realised Malcolm wasn’t even in the boat!!. Unfortunately the mast got broken which put them out of the racing on Sunday.
Malcolm X and Tony had gear failure in one race and sailed the wrong course in the second race and yours truly, sailing with Tim Gold , thought that we would manage to hold our kite up on a leg where nobody else had held theirs so went sploosh – silly!!
On Sunday the racing was closer with some interesting courses set just to keep us on our toes. Thanks to Ian Henderson for being a super crew on Sunday.
A professional photographer was on hand in the main river to take some pretty pictures of the racing and his web site address, if anyone wants to take a look, is www.firstfocusphoto.com
I must say a huge ‘THANK YOU’ to everyone who has helped out over the weekend, especially the ladies who did a fabulous job in the galley including, Terri H, Pam, Lesley, Debbie, Marjie and Lindsay. Thanks also to the rescue boat coxes and crews, trolley dollies, and everyone that helped Alan Jackson in the race box. I am sure lots of other people have helped out in one way or another over the weekend and a big thank you to those also.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Helm | Crew | Sail No | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | Daniel Hare | Jamie Hare | 14809 | BWSC | -3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | Andy Bines | Kerrie Foster | 14865 | B.S.C. | 1 | 3 | 2 | -4 | 6 |
| 3 | David Islin | Don Ayers | 14313 | HBSC | 2 | 2 | 7 | (11.0 DNF) | 11 |
| 4 | Vic Padget | Nigel Bryers | 14737 | WWSC | 4 | 4 | -5 | 5 | 13 |
| 5 | Marcus Wallace | Simon Sawyer | 12600 | HBSC | 5 | 5 | -8 | 7 | 17 |
| 6 | Terri Sharman | Ian Henderson | 14704 | HBSC | -6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 18 |
| 7 | Martin Scarth | Nigel Shepperd | 14798 | BWSC | (11.0 DNS) | 11.0 DNS | 1 | 1 | 13 |
| 8 | Malcolm Cross | Tony Everitt | 14606 | HBSC | (11.0 DNF) | 11.0 DNF | 4 | 3 | 18 |
| 9 | Roger Mander | Edward Skinner | 12186 | HBSC | 8 | (11.0 DNF) | 9 | 11.0 DNF | 28 |
| 10 | Dave Wellham | Malcolm Carter | 4099 | HBSC | 7 | (11.0 DNF) | 11.0 DNS | 11.0 DNS | 29 |
| 11 | Kevin Whittle | | 13988 | MBSC | (11.0 DNS) | 11.0 DNS | 10 | 11.0 DNF | 32 |
As for me, thank god, it's over for another year!