Firefly Open at Rickmansworth Sailing Club
by Barney Smith 12 Jun 2003 15:58 BST
8th June
On the morning of Sunday 8th June the Firefly fleet gathered at Rickmansworth Sailing Club in Hertfordshire for a one day open meeting to follow the Lady helm championship that had been contested the previous day.
Thirteen boats sailed throughout the weekend and Sundays sailing was conducted in weather ranging from flat calm and bright sunshine to 30 knot squalls, hail and torrential rain. The results show the open meeting to have a clear winner, Tony Gunstone and Lucie Buck from Castaways. However,
as is usual in Firefly racing, close racing throughout the fleet prevailed through the day with two of three races being undecided until metres from the finish line. Rickmansworth provided excellent race management and on shore catering and also supplied a rescue boat to check on the class chairman after an untimely capsize!
The 57th Firefly Class National Championships is now approaching fast with a 50+ entry expected at Brixham during the last week of July. The final two warm up events are the Firefly Eastern Championships taking place at Royal Harwich Yacht Club in Suffolk over the last weekend of June and the Firefly Class Inland Championships being held up North at Rotherham SC over the weekend of the 12th and 13th of July.
Troy Trophy – Rickmansworth Firefly Open: (3 race series)
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Crew | Club | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | F3747 | Tony Gunstone | Lucie Buck | Castaways | 2 |
| 2nd | F1954 | Jono Pank | Laura White | Tamesis | 5 |
| 3rd | F2649 | Alex Davey | Rachel Crebbin | Rickmansworth | 6 |
| 4th | F1853 | Simon Spolton | Susannah Bickford | Castaways | 6 |
| 5th | F3023 | Barney Smith | Alice Gardner | Wessex Exiles | 7 |