Audi Laser Quattro Cup - Felixstowe Overall

GREY... BUT YOU CAN'T DAMPEN THE QUATTRO PARTY SPIRIT

Grey skies, grey sea, no wind. Sometimes events can look less than promising at the outset! Felixstowe has many admirers, who talk about legendary days surfing over the bar in howling easterlies, frightening small children and breaking Fireflies into matchwood. However, it was not such a Lion of a venue that greeted the Audi quattro Tour more a damp pussy cat that was a bit drowsy after a big night on the cat nip. However, a seemingly clarevoyant race officer had the fleet launch as the wind arrived, and a pleasant drift into the grey saw a bit of low key, high stress racing, and the form books were upset very little by the results.

The other legends in Felixstowe that night were a carribean steel band, a bar staff serving free rum and an immense barbecue all far from grey, and quattro party spirit didn¹t take long to kick off. An oddity of Felixstowe is the golf driving range into river, which you think there would be all sorts of laws against there may well be after Doug Baker's attempt with a wood that saw the ball bounce back at him, scattering the crowd and winning him the golfing trophy for the weekend. MO< Sunday woke some drowsy sailors with a fresh breeze and some of the waves that create so much bar talk. Soon everyone had a chance to try out that east coast chop, and the battle in the Laser 4000s between Adobe & Preferred IT was played out in spectacular fashion, duelling in every race amongst the vicious swell.

Emma Paull was by far the most effective sailor in the Laser.eps, showing a clear head, being on the start line, and sailing round the course will beat all manner of daftnesses!

Avoiding daftness for the first time in a few weeks, Aquatonic showed a return to form, and blitzed the opposition in a show of pure class. They would pull through inexorably from less than perfect starts, never looking troubled in tough waves and discarding a third place at the end of the weekend.

After the Italian finalé of the Audi Laser Euro Cup on Lake Como, where thermal breeze, great coffee and sunshine are a bit of a winner, the quattro tour will be decided in Draycote, where plenty of boats still have a lot to win or lose.

Results:

Laser 5000:

Laser 4000
 1 Adobe Peter Nicholas Lisa Nicholas 10
 2 Preferred IT Douglas Baker Hilary Sutton 11
 3 Skiworld / Fat Face  Mark Cotgrove Ian Gotts 12
 4 GBR4410 Mark Dicker 13
 5 GBR4423 Mark Ponsford  23
 6 GBR4147 Tom Offer Ali Hall 29
Overall Quattro Cup
  1 Preferred IT 8 1 2 1 2 6
  2 Adobe 1 3 3 4 1 8
  3 Monarch / Unltd 10 2 1 9 DNC 22
  4 GBR4478 5 22 5 5 17 32
  5 Skiworld/Fatface    9 11 10 DNC 3 33
  6 GBR4147 DNC 18 9 6 6 39

Laser.eps
 1 GBR217 Emma Paull 10
 2 GBR136 Mark Tanner 11
 3 GBR Matthew Frary 12
 4 GBR190 Adrian Brunton 13
 5 GBR132 Alan Malarkey 23
 6 GBR226 Paul Taylor 29
 Overall Quattro Cup
  1 GBR217 3 2 1  6
  2 Hawk 5 3 4  12
  3 GBR108 8 6 6  20
  4 GBR132 4 5 DNC  109
  5 GBR226 DNC 4 7  111
  6 Audi Foundation 1 DNC DNC  201

More news and results at www.lasersailing.com/audi-laser-racing