Phantom Eastern Area Championship at Royal Harwich Yacht Club

Phantom East Coast Championship at Royal Harwich © Pavel Kricka

Royal Harwich Yacht Club hosted the Phantom Eastern Area Championship over the weekend of the 10th & 11th July.

The intention was for the Phantom event to be held on the 10th and the RH Smugglers Pursuit race to be on the 11th. However, the wind gods did not play ball, there was no sailing on the 10th due to lack of wind. RHYC hastily re-arranged the weekend for the Phantoms to have 4 races back to back on the 11th, the pursuit race being cancelled.

The Sunday dawned with a fairly consistent 8 knot oscillating breeze.

The race officer laid excellent courses, two windward/ leeward and two Olympic (Triangle, Sausage). The racing was close through the fleet, with boat speed being pretty even. The secret was picking the shifts and avoiding the weed.

Race 1 (Windward /Leeward)

Bill Taylor was first round the windward mark, but by the time the pack got shuffled at the end of the 2nd beat. Bob and Chris were 1st and 2nd, Nigel was 3rd and Bill down to 4th.

Race 2 (Olympic)

Nigel was first round the windward mark followed by Bob and Bill, by the end of the 2nd beat, Bob was back in front.

Race 3 (Olympic)

Eric arrived at the windward mark 1st, but by the end of the 2nd beat, Graham was leading Bob with Chris in 3rd.

Race 4 (Windward/Leeward)

Bob, Nigel and Warren were 1,2,3 at the windward mark, but by the end of the 2nd beat, Bob and Nigel were away and Bill had worked his way past Chris and Warren. At the finish, Chris was pinged for OCS.

Overall Results: