Topaz Open Meeting at Leigh-on-Sea Sailing Club

by Steve Corbet 1 Jun 2003 22:33 BST

1st June 2003

The Topaz fleets from Leigh on Sea SC and Essex YC joined with Toppers for a weekend open meeting on Saturday 31st May / June 1st. The Topaz fleet sailed 2 races on each day, with all helm opting for either the standard Uno rig or the Race rig to minimise the number of handicaps to be applied to the elapsed times. Racing on Saturday was under brilliant sunshine with a moderate easterly wind 3 to 4 with a few gusts of 5, sufficient to test some of the younger lightweight helms to the limits. On Sunday the sunshine was hidden by clouds and the wind struggled to make force 2, despite these fickle winds the race officer managed to get in two full races.

In the stronger winds on Saturday the racing was dominated by James Cheshire who won both races narrowly from Gareth Jenkins, in Sunday’s light breeze the wins were shared between Peter and John Hannah, however as both Hannah’s had to count a DNS from not racing on Saturday the overall winner was James Cheshire with Gareth Jenkins a creditable second.

Overall Results:

Pos	Boat Type	Sail No	Helm	Club	Pts
1st	Topaz Race	958	James Cheshire	Essex YC	6
2nd	Topaz Uno	1183	Gareth Jenkins	Leigh on Sea SC	7
3rd	Topaz Race	982	Angus Rae	Essex YC	9
4th	Topaz Race	812	Peter Hannah	Essex YC	10
5th	Topaz Race	983	John Hannah	Essex YC	10