Squib National Championship at Weymouth Sailing Club - Day 3

Squib Nationals at Weymouth Day 3 - The 65 boat Squib keelboat fleet with 800 nearest the committee boat, and 142 the black boat half way down the line - these finished second and first respectively © Christine Boyd

Update from Vincent Delany

Tuesday was day three of the Squib keelboat National Championship hosted by Weymouth Sailing Club. Tuesday's race was race four of the eight race series and held in 12 to 16 knots of wind from 220 degrees and the potential winners are coming to the top of the leaderboard.

Unlike Monday, the wind was remarkably steady today with boats sailing inshore towards the beach doing as well as those who sailed offshore. At the end of Tuesday's four lap windward-leeward race with a 1.25 mile windward leg, the finishing order was No. 142, Two Counts (Jono Brown & Chris Agar) No.800 Alchemy (Gerard Dyson & Tony Saltonstall) from Royal Yorkshire Y.C. and in third place No. 908, Harry VI (Mike Budd & Mark Greaves). All of these competitors can be seen to be conspicuously ahead of the bunch on the long starting line, with 800 at the committee boat and 142 and 908 mid-line.

Squib Nationals at Weymouth Day 3 - race 4 winners ‘Two Counts' with Jono Browne and Chris - they currently lead the Squib championship after four races and one discard - photo © Christine Boyd

Update from Daniel Henderson

After two days of two races with umpteen starts, postponements and an abandonment, there were many happy faces on the pontoon of the prospect of a one race day. It was also great to see a patched up Ghost Rider after a collision put them out of racing yesterday.

Amazingly it only required one AP before the fleet were clear away (no BFDs today!). The choice between left or right on the beat was again the biggest decision. Those who went left may have thought they were coming out on top however it was those who had tacks onto port off the start who were first to the mark and it was great to see stalwarts, Gerard and Salty (800) round the mark in pole position. They continued to lead the fleet round for quite some time however by the third beat, Jono and Chris (142) in the black boat had stonked along and pulled ahead thanks to some shifts and some classy sailing. Closely behind were Mike and Grebo (908) who had recovered from their black flag from yesterday and Micky and Alex (811) who were one of the few who had gone left from the start however a cracking start and a good decision to tack off sooner than others meant that they hadn't had too bad a race (guess who's writing this report...). Final positions were 1st 142 Two Counts (Jono Brown and Chris Agar), 2nd 800 Alchemy (Gerard Dyson and Tony Saltonstall) and 3rd 908 Harry VI (Mike Budd and Mark Greaves).

As well as the top three, today saw prizes for silver and bronze fleets. A real sign of the competitiveness of the Squib fleet saw a few unlikely names shuffling around the silver fleet. For race 4 (Tuesday's race) first silver boat was 806 Nemesis (Ray Apthorp and Petru Balau) who came 11th in today's race whilst first bronze boat was local boat 844 Saskia V (Richard Frost and Adam Bow) who came 34th.

With four races in and discards kicking in it is the boys in Two Counts with 3 wins out of 4 leading the way however it's still very much to play for with just 10 points separating 2nd to 7th with multiple nationals and race winners in the mix. An AGM and two races tomorrow may see a few people being sensible tonight - it's a long week and we're only halfway through - however some people got the right idea and celebrated the end of today's racing in style...

Results after Day 3: