Photo - Nick & Tobytastic: borderphotos2010.com
Last day. Two races. It was all to play for, Downer & Price were in joint second place despite their boom failure of the previous day, with the Robertsons on the same points, but having had a poor day for them while Downer & Price were running around the shore hunting down a replacement boom. Below them in the rankings was a scrum with six boats on similar numbers, while Nick Craig and Toby were desperate to remove the shame of the previous days spanking by the amusingly quick Ian Robson.
Martin Browne & Chris Sallis (1129) Simon Palmer with Ollie George-Taylor (1387) took full advantage of the empty early gate, and were seen dimly rounding the windward mark with a healthy lead. A brief but heavy shower brought a blast of wind to propel the fleet downwind in a fairly excited fashion, before resuming a wood chopping session through the chop upwind. Lots of shifts and pressure bands gave lots of scope for changing places, and inevitably, certain people benefited more than others. Mike Hart and Sally Fitzpatrick scooped second, and the ever-rapid Robertsons took third. Unfortunately Speccy and Toby worked their way through the fleet to discard their second place. While Ian “no fluke” Robson & Sandy Johnson came in 4th. Downer/Price took 6th.
Last race of the 2012 RS400 National Champs, sunny, F3, three points between 2nd and 3rd…The Queen Mary-based Andy Hatch and Dan Martin (1390) shot out the gate early, waited for the wind to swing back, tacked and cleared the fleet in classic fashion. Their grins were dimly discernable by the mere mortals in the chasing fleet. Unfortunately, they were pursued by folk with the hunting instincts of a hungry trouser-ferret, and the natural mercy of a trap-door spider. Hatch & Martin held out bravely for nearly two laps, but then succumbed to Craig & Lewis, and finally, Stewart and Sarah Robertson, who with that final flurry, nailed themselves into 2nd place overall, from Jim Downer & Jon Price in 3rd, with Nick Craig and Toby Lewis crowned Noble Marine RS400 National Champions of 2012.
Howard Farbrother
