Dat 18 - Worthing Grand Prix

East Coast/South Coast battle

63 boats turned up for the 5th Grand Prix of this years circuit, and were greeted by temperatures in the late 20's, a light breeze, and several freezers full of the finest bevvy of drinkables assembled in living memory!

Saturday morning saw the weekends pattern begin to emerge with Jasper and Laura Barnham, and Bob and Ali Fletcher on Bob Fletcher Farming, both from Snettisham Beach, toughing it out with the young pretenders from the South Coast, namely Jon Hutchings and Rob Garcka on Aurthur Andersen, and Lawrie Draper and Bettina Harvey, both from Stokes Bay. The Barnhams sailed a cool race, always pushed hard by Bob Fletcher Farming, with Aurthur Andersen sailing well to claim the final podium position. Herve Le Maux and Sam May stormed through the 2nd half of the race to challenge Draper/Harvey towards the end, but had to settle for 4th as the wiley old man of the fleet, Draper, was in no mood to compromise.

The second race of the day was sailed in a settled SW gradient breeze, with little overtaking opportunities available to the fleet. Draper/Harvey led the fleet handsomely/prettily (at the risk of sounding sexist!), with Richard Ledger and Mel Rogers from Whitstable sailing an excellent race. The latter did well to hold off a quiver of ex and current Champions, leading home the Barnhams in 3rd, and the Anglo-French team of Le Maux/May in yet another 4th place.

After one day, the East Coast's representatives experience was beginning to shine, and the South Coast team were left to establish what had gone wrong, and just how they were going to stop the Snett-Set. There was only one thing for it - drink, forget and start afresh in the morning.

So, with wery heads, the South Coast team took to Sunday morning's challenge with the preverbial sore backsides, and once again the Sentt-Set's Barnhams gave a lesson in leading from the front - not before Jon Garcka and Dames Hicklin, on board UKIDA had shown the way up the first beat. The Barnham's overhauled them downwind, and were never caught, which left UKIDA fighting off the advances of another East Coast duo, Stuart Snell & Cathrin Farthing on Drake and Skull. The former eventually won that battle, leaving Drake and Skull the unenviable task of keeping Geoff Sherwood & Lorna Phipps off the podium.

The weekends penultimate race saw a similar scenario, but the Barnham's decided to let another Snett-Set boat show a clean pair of heals - and it was something Bob Fletcher Farming seemed to relish. UKIDA took the Barnham's downwind, to claim 2nd, with the Barnham's taking 3rd, and Dave and Louise Roberts from Stokes Bay 4th. With one race to go, it was really a case of the East Coast Wonders consolidating their dominence on the southern-boys turf.

Well, this they did, and in style! A Barnham/Bob Fletcher Farming one-two, clinched the event for the Barnham's, gave the latter 2nd place, and relegated the South Coast team back to the bar to work out what they could do next time around.

Overall Results:

1st Jasper/Laura Barnham Snettisham
2nd Bob Fletcher Farming Bob/Ali Fletcher Snettisham
3rd Lawrie Draper/Bettina Harvey Stokes Bay
4th Mon Dieu - Herve Le Maux/Sam May France
5th Geoff Sherwood/Lorna Phipps Parkstone
6th UKIDA Promo 'See the Side' - Jon Garcka/Dames Hicklin Stokes Bay
7th Drake & Skull - Stuart Snell/Cathrin Farthing Grafham
8th Dave/Louise Roberts Stokes Bay 

Handicap Prize:
1st Dave Clarke/Martin Hayes Stokes Bay
2nd Simon Nicholson/A.Acton Stokes Bay
3rd Marc Panton/Hayley Smith Datchet