Results

A forecast of 20 to 30 knots freshening for a time in the middle of the day put quite a few off but after a couple of pretty fresh and gusty races to begin with the breeze dropped to around 10 knots for the final 3 races, giving everyone plenty of chances and allowing the fleet to avoid total exhaustion while providing extremely close racing, with many photo finishes right through the fleet.

 

There were quite a few swimmers in the first 2 races, with the very gusty northerly catching many out on the runs. This mixed up the results quite a bit, leading to an early discard for some of the favourites. In the end Cris Brodie (M) was a clear and well deserved winner in the Standards, showing consistent speed and tactics which enabled him to work up through the fleet on several occasions when he got back a bit early. Starting off the carpark with the breeze from the north provided some interesting challenges, with lulls, squalls and big shifts making getting to the first mark near the top of the bunch a bit of a lottery at times.

 

Second overall was GM Nick Page, who was looking good after the first 2 races and managed to be just consistent enough over the final 3 races to hold out Master Tony Nicholson. Tony a couple of great races, getting the bullet in race 2, but struggled for consistency and verticality, ending up 3rd overall. Other race winners in the Standards were GM Mark Hursthouse, who finished 4th overall and Thomas Borrmann, who did a horizon job on the fleet in race 4.

 

In the Radials, who started with the Standards, Apprentice Phil Wild managed a clean sweep, several times also beating almost all of the Standard fleet! Second was GM Werner Hennig who made the drive up from Hamilton for the day, while GM Jeff Coffin just pipped WM Georgina Wooldridge for 3rd spot.

 

Nick Page