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Christmas Cracker Pursuit Race 2022 at Paignton Sailing Club

by Nick Ripley 24 Nov 2022 17:24 GMT 20 November 2022

In the days leading up to the 2022 edition of the Christmas Cracker pursuit race, part of the Sailing Southwest Winter Series, the forecast was looking a bit scary. It was certainly enough to put off 12 of the 33 pre-registered teams, leaving 21 competitors to enjoy the waters of Torbay on what proved to be a cracking November day, with just one brief shower to spoil the sunshine, flat sea and 15 to 20 knot westerly wind.

The first boat away was local lad Ashton Shears in his Laser 4.7 followed four minutes later by a Firefly and then three Laser Radials after a further 3 minutes. A minute behind the Radials, three RS Aero 5s started with Mark Ripley taking the lead within 2 laps, a lead that he was to hang onto until the dying moments of the race.

Four minutes elapsed before the OK started and then four further RS Aeros, with the bigger 7 rig and two Blaze Fires started 8 minutes after the Aero 5s with Peter Barton quickly pulling away from the others to begin chasing Mark, a battle he eventually won, but not without a fight.

Next to start was the Blaze and Hadron H2 and then the spinnaker-flying boats, two Fireballs, an RS400 and finally, 31 minutes and a lap down on the Laser 4.7, the Osprey of Terry Curtis and Peter Greig who quickly showed their colours gaining places every lap before finally taking the lead towards the end of the sixth and final lap of the race.

Overall Results:

PosClassSail NoHelmCrewClubR1
1stOsprey1234Terry CurtisPeter GreigWeymouth SC1
2ndRS Aero 73597Peter Barton Lymington Town SC2
3rdRS Aero 51181Mark Ripley Paignton SC3
4thBlaze Fire713Andrew Chorlton Paignton SC4
5thRS Aero 52388Charlie Gillmore Paignton SC/Stoke Gabriel BA5
6thRS400411Figs CainBarney DearslyStarcross YC6
7thRS Aero 73342Jack Miller Paignton SC7
8thOK77Gavin Poulloin Weymouth SC8
9thRS Aero 73023richard Watsham Starcross YC/Paignton SC9
10thRS Aero 72550Chris Jones Sutton Bingham SC10
11thBlaze761Tim Morgan Paignton SC11
12thRS Aero 53307Tim Wild Paignton SC12
13thFirefly3695Angus CookMike DunbarCastawyays13
14thLaser Radial150789Ben Fuller Paignton SC14
15thBlaze Fire797Mike Holmes Paignton SC15
16thHadron H2113Neil symthe Paignton SC16
17thFireball14928Anthony WilicocksJames WilcocksPortishead Y & SC17
18thLaser 4.7154605Ashton Shears Paignton SC18
19thLaser Radial136049Tom Wild Paignton SCRET
19thFireball15045Christine SlaterGraham SlaterPaignton SCRET
19thLaser210976Darryl Brown Paignton SCRET

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