Hurricane 5.9 Open Meeting at Datchet Water Sailing Club

On the 16/17th March nineteen Hurricanes turned out at Datchet Water for the season’s opening T.T. event. Saturday morning was sunny but the winds were light and it looked as though it was going to be a frustrating Datchet drifter. The first race was started in light winds with shifts of over 60 degrees with the Bartlett’s showing they had not lost any of their light wind speed over the winter. Grant Piggot and Adam Piggott were second with Kevin Skinner and Mandy Cox finishing third. The 2nd race was sailed in freshening wind which led to interesting racing across the fleet, with Simon Northrop and Matt Young finishing first, Bartlett’s second and Piggott third. Race 3 was sailed in force five wind conditions which called for twin trapezing and maximum downhaul and doing the “WildThing”. Northrop again came first with the heavy weather boys Phil Marks and Dan Taylor fighting him all the way. New to the fleet, Neil Connolly from Stone Y C sailed well to finish in third position.

Sunday morning dawned windless again and the race officer Peter Short postponed for half an hour to allow the wind to build and settle. This allowed two competitive races with the wind building throughout. The Bartlett’s had obviously had big breakfasts which allowed them to take both of the races. Skinner was second in race four with, Northrop following him in. This meant that all the top positions were still up for grabs; Northrop tried to cover Bartlett throughout race five but only managed to take second. After leading for most of the race Marks slipped down to third on the last lap after an audacious flier by Bartlett. The racing was so tight that fourth and fifth had to be decided by the last race score; both teams had exactly the same point’s combinations. Thanks must go to Datchet Water S.C. in particular Peter Short (Race Officer), the safety crews, the class sponsors Crewsaver, Lucozade, A. W. Sail Boats, Red Insurance and Northrop Sails.

Overall Results:

Results generated and submitted using Sailwave - completely free Windows® sailing scoring software