Results / Winter Championships Leigh & Lowton SC - 17/03/2012
A red hot fleet of 54 boats and weather that became increasingly bizarre
as the weekend progressed was the recipe for one of the most open events
in many a year. It also saw all the top 10 record higher scores than the
Zimbabwe top order did in the Test match, wit no one having a clue what
had won. A point emphasised by Dave and Nicky Derby�s genuine surprise
when, at the prize-giving, they were announced the winners with 29
points; only one other boat managed 5 top 10 results. The depth of the
fleet was demonstrated by 28 boats recording top 10 results, and National
Champions, Tom & Jo Hewitson counting results of 13, 11 and 25. Every
leading boat could claim they could have won with bad luck and what if
stories.
Saturday�s racing started with a really good force 4 from the West, and
the classic Lee-on-Solent short chop. Lee Sydenham/Anne Vaudray were
majestic in the first race to lead from start to finish with Hamish
Calder/Severine Rees-Jones, Pete Vincent/Louisa Fewtrell and David
Giles/Fiona Cark 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Jon Lewis/Millie Parsons shook off
the early challenge of Paul Dorer/Ian Robertson to score an emphatic win
from the Hewitsons, Dorer and Vincent in race 2. The wind now started
to drop quickly, so race 3 was held in a force 2 with the tide turning.
You had to go right up the first beat and Hamish Walker/Caroline Eyre,
Steve Dunn/Harriett Edwards did this to perfection to be clear 1.2 with
Ian Pickard/Lucy Matthews, Giles/Clark on 3rd and 4th.
After the RS Ball everything seemed nice on Sunday morning until you
launched. Then the big black clouds rolled up the Solent and played
havoc with the wind. A shift seemed to hit every 45 minutes, and the
poor race officer shifted marks for England; setting up windward legs
which varied from 210 to 330 degrees, and back again within 30 minutes.
Race 4 started in a gentle force 2 with Lee Sydenham leading. The front
pack went right into falling breeze on the first run, and then watched in
horror as anyone who gybed early found huge planning gusts under the
front edge of a nasty cloud that took them to the leeward mark.
Walker/Eyre must have thought Christmas had arrived early as they, in a
cloud of spray, shot into the lead. Behind was carnage as boats capsized
everywhere as the wind rose from force1-2 to 5 in the blink of an eye.
Walker won from James Stewart/Elaine Turner and Jane Robertson/Helen
Rollinson, with Giles and Sydenham impressively recovering to 4th and
6th. The challenge of overnight leaders, Pickard/Matthews, disappeared
in a rum & coke induced haze with a soggy 34th.
Race 5 did not exactly give the fleet chance to recover, after a long
wait for the wind to settle everything seemed pleasant in a force 2 and
sunshine at the start. Giles/Clark led but somehow capsized in a hole on
a light wind run. Then for he final lap a very large cloud meant you had
to go right, sit out and get very wet in heavy rain with a planning reach
to the finish. The Derbys won from Walker, Dunn, and Chris Trainer/Bev
Jordan. Walker/Eyre were now ahead overall, but everyone had a discard
they did not want to write home about, so it was down to the last race.
With the wind now from the NW, the beat was against a strong tide.
Calder and Vincent had the best starts and were 2.3 behind Phil Sowden
and 11 year old Daniel Sowden at the first mark but none of these counted
in overall victory terms. Calder led up the 2bd beat, but then the wind
switched off. The Sowdens and Mark Dencher/Anna Harding sailed around
Calder in more zephyrs, the front 4 inched their way around the windward
mark to rush downwind with the tide. The rest of the fleet was slowly
moving backwards away from the mark. Just when it looked like the time
limit was going to come into play, a new breeze allowed everyone to reach
to the windward mark. The Sowdens won, young Daniel now thinking this
open meeting lark a real doddle, with Vincent sneaking second at the
death from Dencher. The ever consistent Derbys finished 7th, with Giles
and Sydenham in 8.14, and Walker a distant 24th and now having to count a
14th. This gave the Derbys overall victory by 2 point only.
1. 700 David Derby Nicky Derby Bough Beech
2. 796 Hamish Walker Caroline Eyre RNSA
3. 753 David Giles Fiona Clark Weir Wood
4. 854 Lee Syndenham Anne Vandry Stokes Bay
5. 789 Steve Dunn Harriet SWSC
6. 371 Roger Gilbert Katrina Gilbert Frensham Pond
7. 816 Martyn Jones Clare Rowbottom Itchenor
8. 777 Pete Vincent Louisa Buttons Fewtrell Bristol Corinthian
9. 848 Ian Pickard Lucy Matthews Bristol Corinthian
10. 626 Paul Fisk Caroline Fisk ECA/RYA
11. 845 James Stewart Elaine Turner Stokes Bay
12. 858 Jon Lewis Milly Parsons Burghfield
13. 809 Ralph Singleton Sophie Singleton Chew Valley Lake
14. 844 John Blundell Chris Blundell Hallamshire
15. 797 Sam Mettam Orwin Murray RNSA
16. 739 Jane Robertson Helen Rollinson Bowmoor
17. 815 Matt Davies Andy Robertson Hayling Island
18. 756 Hamish Calder Severine Rees-Jones Royal Highland
19. 618 Chris Trainor Bev Jordan Draycote Water
20. 695 Paul Dorer Ian Robertson Bowmoor
21. 732 Sue Antonelli Jo Lloyd Littleton
22. 840 M English Bridget Cooke Wembley
23. 535 Simon Gillow Tracey Hill Wembley
24. 872 Charlie Roome Jodi Dyer Hayling Island
25. 581 Mike Chapman Sheridan Killwick Wembley
26. 772 Tom Hewitson Jo Hewitson BLYM
27. 392 Ben Alexander Liz Alexander Deben YC
28. 808 Sarah Taylor Claire Upton-Brown Hayling Island
29. 743 Andi Riley J Marsden Stewartby
30. 805 Cliff Millimer Bec Millimer CSC
31. 722 Ann Jackson Alan Skeens Burghfield
32. 773 Phil Sowden Daniel Sowden Highcliffe
33. 397 Mark Harrison Sally Harrison Gurnard
34. 787 Harry Roome Prue Roome Hayling Island
35. 357 Trudie Banbury Bert Ryder Bristol Corinthian
36. 827 Chris Smith Paula Irish Draycote Water
37. 702 M Dencher A Harding Chew Valley Lake
38. 655 Lucy Davey Jane Sutor Doris
39. 474 Sarah Covington Kellie Covington Hill Head
40. 345 Jaemi Gebhard Karen Baker Derwent Reservoir
41. 449 Vanda Young Jonathan Jonett Littleton
42. 438 Lynne Ratcliffe Butch Roberts Bough Beech
43. 666 I McGregor William McGregor Salcombe
44. 831 Nigel Furness Jean Furness Draycote Water
45. 863 Alan Perry Neil Chadborn Wembley
46. 800 W Carlton A Carlton Cotswold
47. 880 Sarah Allan Lauren Meadows Hamble River
48. 383 Paul Goodwin Kate Gillow Draycote Water
49. 654 Alice Allen Peter Cruickshank Bristol Corinthian
50. 839 Stephen Seargeant Karen Garlick Wembley
51. 491 Derek Bretherton Lesley Bennett RYA
52. 472 Will King Jemma Langford RNSA
53. 327 Matt Hall Jo Wells Weston
54. 312 E Hatton M Barnes Weir Wood