by Chris Martin
36 boats gathered at Blithfield SC for the first standalone Craftinsure Silver Tiller event of 2012. The late start meant competitors were greeted with spring like sunshine, and what looked like a nice force two which lulled everyone into a sense of false security as the day developed into one of the most bizarre that your correspondent has ever sailed in!
Race one got off cleanly, and the fleet were lead around the first mark by Jon Gorringe and Toby Lewis.The breeze at this point was relatively steady, but there were massive gains to be made if you picked the bends correctly. Gorringe and Lewis held onto their lead to win the race, followed home by Dan Willet and Pete Nicholson all the way from Brightlingsea. Richard Adams and Chris Gould came in third.
Race two is probably best remembered for how many ways the conditions can torture a race officer. Initially a highly port biased line lead to a general recall and a restart under black flag. In the last 30 seconds to the restart it was apparent that the committee boat was the place to be. This lead to a number of BFDs. The swinging breeze never kicked back around to the left and some boats managed to get to the first mark in one, led by Paul and Michelle Keeling. It all looked cut and dried after one leg, but the wind had not done with us yet. Half way down what was supposed to be a run, in not a lot of wind a massive wind shift and a force 4-5 with heavy rain came in from nowhere and turned the fleet inside out. This race was won by the Adams/Gould team, with Andy Davies and Tom Pygall second.
Race three. Again this started in not a lot of breeze, which died off to pretty much nothing halfway up the first beat. About half the fleet headed right to get closer to some ominous looking clouds, but having tempted us with a sudden blast earlier on the breeze was not to materialise until later. Those who picked their way up the left did the best, and three home boats rounded first Matt Biggs and Ben Hollis leading with Steve/Ben Hendon and Chris Martin/Matt Smith in hot pursuit. The clouds headed closer and the wind did fill in just as the lead pack got around the second mark, luckily for the leaders this was not disastrous as they shot away while the bunch behind took each other’s wind. Biggs/Hollis held onto their lead, with the fleet newcomers Steve/Ben Hendon also holding onto second place. Another newcomer to the fleet Chris Jennings crewed by Liese Scott came in third.
Overall the Midland team of Richard Adams and Chris Gould took the GKN Trophy. Our thanks go to everyone who helped run the event, and especially to Jon Batt and Nick Broomhall in the committee boat who must have been having kittens pretty much all day! Hopefully the weather for the Inlands in September will be kinder. We look forward to welcoming the fleet back.
1st 3650 Richard Adams and Chris Gould Midland SC
2nd 3712 Jon Gorringe and Toby Lewis Parkstone YC
3rd 3644 Steve and Ben Hendon Blithfield SC
4th 3627 Dan Willett and Pete Nicholson Brightlingsea SC
5th 3658 Chris Jennings and Liese Scott Burghfield SC
6th 3583 Chris Martin and Matt Smith Blithfield SC
Merlin Rocket Open Meeting 2012
17th March
Pos Sail No. Helm Crew Club R1 R2 R3 Nett
1 3650 Rich Adams Chris Gould Midland 3 1 (37.0 DNS) 4
2 3712 Jon Gorringe Toby Lewis Parkstone 1 -4 4 5
3 3644 Steve Hendon Ben Hendon Blithfield 4 -10 2 6
4 3627 Dan Willet Peter Nicholson Brightlingsea 2 -5 5 7
5 3658 Chris Jennings Liese Scott Burghfield -9 6 3 9
6 3583 Chris Martin Matt Smith Blithfield 5 -11 6 11
7 3684 Andy Davis Tom Pygall Blithfield 10 2 (37.0 DNF) 12
8 3735 David Winder Rory Mackenzie Hollingworth 6 7 (37.0 DNC) 13
9 3732 Tom Jeffcoate Ben Rayner Notts County 7 8 (37.0 DNC) 15
10 3565 Paul Keeling Michelle Keeling Blithfield 12 3 -13 15
11 3730 Paul Hollis James Dawes Blithfield -15 9 7 16
12 3510 Mike Raine Jane Hill Rudyard Lake 8 -15 9 17
13 3722 Matt Biggs Ben Hollis Blithfield 17 (37.0 OCS) 1 18
14 3339 Tim Male Rebecca Male Blithfield 11 (37.0 DNF) 8 19
15 3617 Tom Chadfield Andy Chadfield Blithfield 13 13 (37.0 DNC) 26
16 3701 Steve Hunt Ruth Hunt Pilkington -18 17 10 27
17 3719 Mike Partridge Claire Davis Hayling Island -25 18 12 30
18 3663 Chris Haworth Jo Harvey Blackpool and Fleetwood 14 16 (37.0 DNS) 30
19 3645 Jeremy Deacon Joanna Deacon Cookham -26 22 11 33
20 3581 Mark Reddington Colin Staite Bartley 22 12 (37.0 DNC) 34
21 3705 Geoff Wright Katie Wright Blithfield -23 19 15 34
22 3610 Richard Dee Chris Winters Midland 20 (37.0 OCS) 14 34
23 3402 Rob Kennaugh Abi Spurr Blithfield 21 14 (37.0 DNC) 35
24 3508 Colin Anderson Sean Anderson Redditch -31 20 16 36
25 3680 Steve Watson Phil Scott Midland 19 23 (37.0 DNS) 42
26 3566 Jon wood Heather Earlswood -29 25 17 42
27 3547 Peter Male Luke Tucker Blithfield -28 26 18 44
28 3619 Guy Browns Tommi Cluley Trent Valley 24 21 (37.0 DNF) 45
29 3567 Martin Smith Karen Blithfield -32 27 19 46
30 3548 Kieron Mason Henry Mason Blithfield -30 29 20 49
31 3533 Russell Brayshaw Nicola Wilkinson Hollowell -35 28 21 49
32 3518 Julian Harris Samuel Harris Midland 27 24 (37.0 DNC) 51
33 3723 Robert Line Peter Hill Head 16 (37.0 OCS) (37.0 DNC) 53
34 3653 Chris Brown M Williams – 33 (37.0 DNC) (37.0 DNC) 70
35 3346 Ian Mackenzie Angela Mackenzie Blithfield 34 (37.0 DNF) (37.0 DNC) 71
36 3716 Steve Leney Gill Leney Blithfield (37.0 DNC) (37.0 DNC) (37.0 DNC) 74
3 races, 2 to count.
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