Javelin Open Meeting at Glossop & District Sailing Club

The first Javelin open meeting of 2002 was hosted by Glossop and District Sailing club over the weekend of the 4th and 5th May and saw a turnout of 18 boats.

Perfect sunny skies and a North Easterly force 3 greeted the competitors for the first race on Saturday. The relatively short first beat saw the majority of the fleet arriving at the windward mark together with Richard Smith and Ed Dyson having a narrow lead over Mike Pickles and Dick Fisher and Katrin Deinhardt and Olav Schulter. The gusty conditions saw a number of places change on the first downwind leg with Brian Dixon and Kathryn Partington and Brian and David Earl recovering well to 3rd and 4th respectively after bad starts.

The race followed the same pattern throughout with many places changing on the downwind legs. Smith / Dyson managing to hold onto the lead however Pickles / Fisher suffered a capsize in the strengthening winds on the penultimate lap which pushed them down to sixth and allowed Dixon and Partington and the Earl brothers to sail away from the pack. The final positions ended with Smith / Dyson first, Dixon / Partington second and the Earl’s third.

The wind increased slightly for the second race on the Saturday and again the short beat resulted in the majority of the fleet arriving at the windward mark together. Smith / Dyson had again got a good start and arrived first, very closely followed by Roger Partington and Steve Tinsley and Ian Winterburn and Cliff Sagar. Smith / Dyson and Partington / Tinsley made the most of a fortuitous gust and managed to open up a safe distance from the chasing pack on the first downwind leg. In the middle of the fleet there was again a lot of place changes on the downwind legs with Dixon / Partington moving their way through the fleet following a particularly bad start.

The battle for the lead hotted up as Pickles / Fisher joined Smith / Dyson and Partington / Tinsley following and excellent spinnaker leg on the last leg of the first lap. Following a very close beat local knowledge may have paid off as Smith / Dyson and Partington / Tinsley managed to pass Pickles / Fisher coming up to the windward mark. These positions were held for most of the race until Pickles found himself in amongst a battle of the chasing pack as the Earl’s, Dixon / Partington and Winterburn / Sagar cruised up to them in a gust. The resulting battle ended with the home boats winning out with finishing positions being Smith / Dyson first Partington Tinsley second and Dixon / Partington third.

As now seems to be obligatory for the Glossop open the crews awoke to a strengthening wind but perhaps more unusual clear blue skies for the second and final day of the open. The third race followed exactly the same format as the previous two with the exception that Ben Fisher and Ben Chapman sailing exceptionally well joined the leading pack for the first lap. The race saw the tightest racing of the event with the first three boats of the Earl’s, Smith / Dyson, Dixon / Partington having a very close battle throughout the race ending in Dixon beating Smith across the finishing line by half a boat length with the Earl’s finishing third following a port / starboard altercation with Smith 50 yards from the finish.

The fourth race blew the race for overall first place open up between Dixon /Partington and Smith / Dyson. Dixon arrived at the windward mark first closely followed by Winterburn / Sagar, Partington / Tinsley and Smith / Dyson, the Earl’s having capsized on the first beat being back in 12th place. Following the first downwind leg Dixon had increased his lead over Winterburn with Partington and Smith battling for fourth place. The race took an unexpected twist when Smith missed a mark, followed by Ben Fisher and Pickles, having realised their mistake they dropped spinnakers and returned to round the correct mark leaving them in the middle of the pack. This enabled Dixon and Winterburn to sail well clear of the pack with Dixon and Winterburn exchanging the lead on the beat until a gust caused Winterburn to capsize. This enabled Partington to claim second and allowed Earl, Smith and Pickles to pass. After a close battle between these three over the next two laps Smith eventually got past Earl and Partington to claim second some 500 yards behind race winner Dixon with Earl finishing third and Pickles fourth.

The final race saw Dixon having to beat Smith to claim overall first place. After the first beat the two were very close with Dixon reaching the windward mark first and running down one side of the reservoir with Smith sailing down the other followed by Earl, Partington and Pickles. A problem with the spinnaker on the run in Dixon’s boat allowed Smith and Earl to pass and sail into a comfortable lead. However Dixon reclaimed second from Earl by the leeward mark and once again opened up the race for the overall first place. Some very close racing between the three leaders saw second and third place change a number of times and allowed Smith to keep a small advantage over Dixon. The eventual placings were Smith /Dyson first, claiming overall first place with Dixon / Partington second to claim second place overall and the Earl brothers finishing third to claim overall third place.

Overall Results: