GP14 Open Meeting at Nantwich & Border Counties Sailing Club

by Peter Rolfe 27 Mar 2002 07:47 GMT

The second event, sponsored by Speed Sails, of the 2002 GP14 Midland Bell Trophy Series took place on Sunday 24th March at Nantwich & Border Counties SC. Ideal sailing conditions of a steady southerly F3 provided some very close racing for the 26 boats from 11 clubs.

The start of the second race Photo © Peter Rolfe

All three races were started cleanly at the first attempt due perhaps to the OOD’s threat to use the black flag after any general recall. The first race saw Carl Jeffs and Jim Tootall from Trimpley first round the windward mark closely followed by Dave Young and Julia Howard from South Staffs with John and Wendy Carlin from West Kirby in third place. With the fleet well bunched, Justin Jones and Chris & Chris Anderson from South Staffs climbed steadily up through the fleet to take the lead just before the windward mark on lap 3. However, Jeffs had regained the lead by the end of the 4th lap and looked to have the race in the bag when he failed to adequately protect his position to windward of Jones on port tack just before the finish. Jones tacked onto starboard, forcing Jeffs to pass astern, taking line honours by just over a boat length from Jeffs with young a few boat lengths further behind in third place.

In the second race, Jones had gained the lead by lap 2, closely followed by Jeffs and Young. Over the remainder of the race, Jones managed to consolidate his lead leaving Jeffs and Young in a close tussle for second place. Young however managed second place by lap 3 which he just held to the finish.

With two wins already, Jones did not bother to start the third and final race, leaving Jeffs and Young to fight it out for second place overall. As in the first race, Jeffs made an excellent start and took the lead up the first beat which he retained for whole race taking second place overall. Young did not make such a good start and was lying in 6th place on lap1 before moving steadily up to 3rd place by lap 4, a position he retained to finish third in the race and third overall. Nick and Alison Eaves from Bartley had a good race moving up from third to second on lap 2 to take second place and fourth overall. The highest place Nantwich boat was sailed by Ralph Chadwick and Matt Birks who finished 9th Overall.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm & Crew	Club	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1	13427	Justin Jones & Chris Anderson	South Staffs SC	1	1	DNS	2
2	13686	Carl Jeffs & Jim Toothill	Trimpley SC	2	3	1	3
3	13710	Dave Young & Julia Howard	South Staffs SC	3	2	3	5
4	13609	Nick & Alison Eaves	Bartley SC	5	4	2	6
5	10801	John Salmonson & Alan Jones	South Staffs SC	7	5	4	9
6	13484	Toby Taylor & James Goodfellow	South Staffs SC	4	DNF	6	10
7	13611	Terry Edwards & Darren Edwards	South Staffs SC	10	6	7	13
8	13317	John & Wendy Carlin	West Kirby SC	6	7	9	13
9	13456	Ralph Chadwick & Matt Birks	Nantwich & Border Counties SC	15	9	5	14
10	13420	Chris & Gill Beddow	South Staffs SC	8	8	10	16
11	13277	Richard & Mena Little	Redditch SC	13	11	8	19
12	13164	Les Owen & Phil Edwards	W.F.F.C.	9	10	12	19
13	13477	John & Alex Dixon	Chase SC	11	12	16	23
14	13666	Alan Atack & Chessie Saunders	Rugby SC	12	13	11	23
15	13661	Mark & Hannah Tissiman	Trimpley SC	DNF	15	13	28
16	13572	Sally & Peter Jones	Nantwich & Border Counties SC	20	14	15	29
17	13730	Bruce & Jane Amos	Redditch SC	DNF	19	14	33
18	12852	John Bate & Peter Thoms	Nantwich & Border Counties SC	14	20	19	33
19	13264	Ian Hankinson & James Plumb	Aldridge SC	17	16	17	33
20	9648	Tony Mosley & Jeanette Barnes	Nantwich & Border Counties SC	16	18	18	34
21	13559	Tracey Smith & Rob Woodall	Nantwich & Border Counties SC	22	17	21	38
22	13384	Chris Yates & Dave Jones	Nantwich & Border Counties SC	18	21	22	39
23	11971	Dave Edwards & Roger Smith	Nantwich & Border Counties SC	19	22	25	41
24	13649	Martin Dilks & Scott Allen	Hollowell SC	23	25	20	43
25	12118	Phil Egerton & L Scragg	North Staffs SC	21	23	23	44
26	12625	Dave Tromans & Steve Ellison	Aldridge SC	DNS	24	24	48