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:

Pos	Class	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	R1
1st	Osprey	1234	Terry Curtis	Peter Greig	Weymouth SC	1
2nd	RS Aero 7	3597	Peter Barton		Lymington Town SC	2
3rd	RS Aero 5	1181	Mark Ripley		Paignton SC	3
4th	Blaze Fire	713	Andrew Chorlton		Paignton SC	4
5th	RS Aero 5	2388	Charlie Gillmore		Paignton SC/Stoke Gabriel BA	5
6th	RS400	411	Figs Cain	Barney Dearsly	Starcross YC	6
7th	RS Aero 7	3342	Jack Miller		Paignton SC	7
8th	OK	77	Gavin Poulloin		Weymouth SC	8
9th	RS Aero 7	3023	richard Watsham		Starcross YC/Paignton SC	9
10th	RS Aero 7	2550	Chris Jones		Sutton Bingham SC	10
11th	Blaze	761	Tim Morgan		Paignton SC	11
12th	RS Aero 5	3307	Tim Wild		Paignton SC	12
13th	Firefly	3695	Angus Cook	Mike Dunbar	Castawyays	13
14th	Laser Radial	150789	Ben Fuller		Paignton SC	14
15th	Blaze Fire	797	Mike Holmes		Paignton SC	15
16th	Hadron H2	113	Neil symthe		Paignton SC	16
17th	Fireball	14928	Anthony Wilicocks	James Wilcocks	Portishead Y & SC	17
18th	Laser 4.7	154605	Ashton Shears		Paignton SC	18
19th	Laser Radial	136049	Tom Wild		Paignton SC	RET
19th	Fireball	15045	Christine Slater	Graham Slater	Paignton SC	RET
19th	Laser	210976	Darryl Brown		Paignton SC	RET