Brown's Laser rings the Belle at Grafham
by Andy Rice 2 Jun 2021 19:46 BST
29-30 May 2021
Grafham Belle © Tim Olin /
www.olinphoto.co.uk
Alastair Brown sailed his ILCA 7/Laser to victory at the inaugural Grafham Belle on the last weekend of May.
Competing in round 2 of the Selden SailJuice Winter Series, Brown's three bullets from six races gave the Stokes Bay/ Great Moor SC sailor overall victory after a tiebreak with reigning Series Champions, the 2000 team of Simon Horsfield and Katie Burridge from Thorney Island SC. Just two points behind the leaders and taking third place overall was the Solo of Matthew Frary from Norfolk Broads Yacht Club, who had been overnight leader at the end of Saturday.
Sailors were happy to have emerged out of a long lockdown winter to be racing against and alongside each other after so few competitions. Despite an unpromising weather forecast of little wind and wintery conditions in the week, competitors were treated to glorious conditions on both days, with winds gusting into double figures, albeit shifty under the passing clouds. Principal race officer Nigel Denchfield and his team at Grafham Water SC did a great job of delivering the full six average lap races in the shifty and variable conditions.
Other race winners included the faster boats such as Tom Gillard & Richard Pepperdine's 505 winning the second race followed by Colin and Oly Murray's Norfolk Punt which took victory in the third heat. There was a good showing of 4000s at Grafham, with the home club's team of David Marchant and Rory Moppett winning their class and finishing 16th overall.
Scoring was run to the Great Lakes PY handicap numbers, with seven classes filling the top 10 overall. All boats carried SailRacer trackers from the sub-category results are calculated, of which more below:
Overall Results: (full results can be found here)
SpeedSix fastest
David ANNAN Musto Skiff 535 9.85 kts
Adjusted: Peter CURTIS RS500 1681 9 kts
Category Rankings: (based on extracted results)
Fast Asymmetric
1st Norfolk Punt 94 Colin MURRAY & Oly MURRAY (Yorkshire Dales SC)
2nd RS500 1681 Peter CURTIS & James CURTIS (Grafham Water SC)
3rd RS400 971 Simon KITCHEN & Abbi HOOPER (Grafham Water Sailing Club)
Fast Symmetric
1st 505 9177 Tom GILLARD & Richard PEPPERDINE (Staunton Harold)
2nd 505 9196 Penny CLARK & Russ CLARK (SBSC)
3rd Fireball 14844 Kath BROATCH & Joy JAMES (Port Dinorwic)
Slow Asymmetric
1st 2000 22658 Simon HORSFIELD & Katie BURRIDGE (Thorney Island Sailing Club)
2nd RS Vareo 162 Nick CRICKMORE (WOBYC)
3rd RS Vareo 407 Luke FISHER (Emberton Park SC)
Slow
1st Solo 5953 Matthew FRARY (Norfolk Broads Yacht Club)
2nd Laser 199007 Alastair BROWN (Stokes Bay SC/Great Moor SC)
3rd Solo 5904 Patrick OVERS (Paxton Lakes SC)
Lady
1st Challenger 312 Val MILLWARD (Rutland Sailing Club)
Craftinsure Family Rankings
505 9196 Penny and Russ Clark
Next events in the Selden SailJuice Winter Series take place on the opposite side of the country. On the east coast is a long distance 26-miler, the Medway Marathon on Saturday 19 June. Meanwhile in north Wales it's an inland marathon for those competing in the popular Bala Long Distance, at Bala SC on 19 & 20 June.
More details at www.SailJuiceSeries.com
The following events will count towards the scoring of the Seldén SailJuice Winter Series 2020/21:
- Datchet Flyer, Datchet Water SC, 6-7 December 2020
- Grafham Belle, Grafham Water SC, 29-30 May 2021
- Bala Long Distance, Bala SC, 19-20 June 2021
- Tiger Trophy, Rutland Water SC, 28-29 August 2021
You can find out more about the Series at www.SailJuiceSeries.com