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Grafham Water Sailing Club Restart Series Week 2

by Nigel Denchfield 13 Apr 2021 15:54 BST 10-11 April 2021
The RS200 of Flynn Davies and Holly Dabson leads the start in Race 5 of the Grafham Water SC Restart Series © Simon Wigmore

Grafham Water Sailing Club's leap out of lockdown has continued apace despite some very chilly temperatures. Midweek saw the first of the Wednesday night races with another big entry. Saturday featured the inaugural event of the new Fox's Great Eastern Tour RS200 open circuit, plus a large number of club boats afloat for adult and junior race training.

Sunday was Week 2 of the Spring Restart sailing series. Although sunny, the brisk 15-knot northerly reduced the apparent temperature to around zero. This didn't deter another big turnout of hardy Grafham sailors. The wind had large fluctuations, particularly on the approach to the windward mark. The big cats and asymmetric monohulls enjoyed the conditions on their windward-leeward course. Their spinnakers made for a fine sight as they charged downwind. The leeward mark was the scene of some interesting manoeuvres, especially when the other fleets joined in. Race 1 of the asymmetric cats saw the podium spots in the hands of Jon Sweet [F18], Nick Barnes [F18] and Tony Stokes [F18]. Jon Sweet took races 2 and 3 as well, Tony climbed to 2nd in both but the F18 dominance was broken in race 3 by Kevin Cummerson's Spitfire. In all there were 5 F18s, 3 Spitfires and an A class Classic out.

The asymmetric monohulls were very democratic and shared out the positions around the fleet. Simon Kitchen [RS400] score 1,3,1 whilst Isaac Marsh [RS200] scored 2,2,2 and Flynn Davies [RS200] 3,1,3.

Meanwhile a small fast fleet took off on the trapezoid course and produced a fight between Mark Rushton's Contender and Brian Biggs's RS600. They too shared the wins between them.

Six Flying 15s and the solitary Lark comprised the slow double handed fleet. The two leading 15s of Geoff Floyd and Simon Kneller quickly took a commanding lead, but behind the rest were fighting each other with the Lark getting in-between some of them.

Another large Laser fleet of 17 boats gathered on the start-line. Race 1 saw Phil Bevan pick up a sizable lead by the end of lap 1, and he was never troubled after that. Race 2 featured Dan Wigmore and Robbie McDonald battling at the front and there was much covering on the second beat, allowing Phil Bevan to creep up. Robbie and Dan continued their tactical battle on the run which put Phil on their transoms for the reach. The race ended with Robbie across 1st, then Dan and Phil.

Race 3 was a windward leeward course and to the surprise of the whole fleet, Steve James led for 2 laps by a sizeable margin. Unfortunately, a close encounter with the final mark allowed Dan and Phil through with Dan finishing first, Phil 2nd and Steve an unfortunate 3rd. Credit also goes to young sailor Adele Burbage in her 4.7 who sailed all 3 races in the very cold conditions.

In the slow single-handed fleet, it was the Phantoms of Sam Neal and Simon Wigmore at the front of the fleet, but on final handicap it was the Europes of Richard Major and David Summerville that took the wins, with races 1 and 2 to Richard and the final race to David.

A smaller Solo fleet this week saw the same 3 at the top, Ian Walters, Chris Brown and Harry Lucas. Colin Glover returned to lead the D-zero fleet, and Tristan Nichols took a win in the symmetric cat fleet.

Grafham Water SC is open to all classes of boat with strong class racing for Lasers, Solos, RSs and Flying Fifteens. Memberships are still available for the 2021 season. For more information about the club please visit their website www.grafham.org or call the club on 01480 810478. Follow the club on Facebook.

Results after Week 2: (top three in each fleet)

PosFleetClassSail NoHelmCrewPYR1R2R3R4R5R6Pts
Asymmetric Cat Fleet
1stAsymmetric CatFormula 181581Jon Sweet 665‑7321118
2ndAsymmetric CatFormula 18524Tony StokesJeremy Bosch66524‑532213
3rdAsymmetric CatSpirtfire S/H124Kevin Cummerson 7383.51‑443415.5
Asymmetric Monohull Fleet
1stAsymmetric MonohullRS400971Simon KitchenAbbi Hooper9532(DNC)21319
2ndAsymmetric MonohullRS2001069Isaac MarshFresh10461‑4422211
3rdAsymmetric MonohullRS200985Flynn DaviesHolly Dabson1046(DNC)5631318
Fast Handicap Fleet
1stFast HandicapContender643Mark Rushton 9691DNC    6
1stFast HandicapRS600866Brian Briggs 920DNC1    6
3rdFast HandicapInt Moth3944Phil Bevan 550DNCDNC    10
DZero Fleet
1stDZeroD‑Zero266David Papworth 1043211(DNC)DNC 9
2ndDZeroD‑Zero227Colin Glover 1043(DNC)DNCDNC11 12
3rdDZeroD‑ZeroGBR71Neil Washington 104312(DNC)DNCDNC 13
F15 and Slow Double Fleet
1stF15 and Slow DoubleFlying Fifteen4042Geoff FloydColin Gilbert10212‑422118
2ndF15 and Slow DoubleLark2459Nigel DenchfieldFiona Denchfield107336333(DNC)18
3rdF15 and Slow DoubleFlying Fifteen3550Les RantSusie Sontag1021131(DNC)DNCDNC25
Laser Fleet
1stLaserLaser211405Daniel Wigmore 1108221‑3218
2ndLaserLaser191871Phil Bevan 1108‑33213211
3rdLaserLaser215378Barrie Holden 1108554‑75726
Slow Single Fleet
1stSlow SingleEurope394David Summerville 11411‑322218
2ndSlow SingleRS Aero 72362Claire Geoghegan 1073343(DNC)4519
3rdSlow SingleEurope351R Major 1141(DNC)DNCDNC11220
Solo Fleet
1stSoloSolo5586Ian Walters 115221‑51127
2ndSoloSolo5918Chris Brown 11523‑11322111
3rdSoloSolo583Harry Lucas 1152‑1131033322
Symmetric Cat Fleet
1stSymmetric CatSprint 152022Stuart Snell 926111(DNC)  3
2ndSymmetric CatSprint 151522Andrew Clarke 926‑4322  7
3rdSymmetric CatSprint 151898Simon Farthing 926223(DNC)  7

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