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Hansa GUL Christmas Virtual Regatta Series goes down to the wire

by David Durston 20 Dec 2020 18:54 GMT
Hansa GUL Christmas Virtual Regatta Series 3 Podium © Hansa Class UK

The final places in the Hansa GUL Christmas Virtual Regatta Series went down to the wire. On Tuesday 15th December at 6pm twelve sailors got together for the last five races of the series, with some logging in to Zoom as well to enjoy the banter. This has been taking place for the last ten weeks, so 50 races have been completed with 30 to count.

After seven weeks Richard Codling's lead seemed unassailable. Sailing under the pseudo name of VonPigeon his nearest rival was 69 points behind, and that was John Norman who is also from the Woolverstone Project. The races were scored using the high score method, with the winner getting points equal to the number of sailors who started the race, second place one point less etc. Close behind John were the four previous podium placed sailors from the two previous series': David Durston, Rory McKinna, Paul Phillips, and Paul Holzherr.

Going into the final week the stage was set for some interesting battles. Unfortunately Paul Holzherr was unable to take part in the last four events and dropped down the table. John Norman (Stormin) and David Durston (HansaClassUK) had been tit-for-tat throughout, and going in to week ten were only 7 points apart, competing for second and third placed on the podium. There were similar battles taking place for 4th, 5th, and 6th. Gerard Beens, playing in Holland, had had a good run of results which meant that going into the last week he was only 6 points behind Paul Phillips, who was only 7 behind Rory McKinna.

Although the gap had been closed slightly, Richard took the top spot as expected. The battle for 2nd and 3rd got very interesting in the last event. David had achieved 40 points to John's 30 in the first four races, so it was all down to the last race; a win for David would clinch it. Racing the Nacra 17, David was in first place over the first two legs of four. A wind shift on the second upwind leg put David behind John which was exacerbated by a few penalties as David took risks to catch up. John finished the race in 2nd place, David in 7th, sealing 2nd place overall for Stormin Norman. The battles for 4th to 6th places were nip and tuck, with the three of them finishing within 4 points. Rory McKinna managed to just hold on to 4th place, but Gerard pipped Paul to 5th by one point.

Many thanks to GUL who have continued to support us during these difficult times. Richard will receive a £50 GUL voucher, John £40, and David £30. The series has been very popular and we'll carry on with another series in the new year. It is our hope that in the Spring we'll be able to run our programme of Hansa events on the water.

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