Results / RS Fat Face Racing Circuit Paignton SC - 21/06/2003
Over the weekend of the 21/22 June the RS 400 fleet headed to the south
coast again for Round 5 of the RS Fat Face Racing circuit expertly hosted
by Paington Sailing Club. With a large contingent arriving on the Friday
night to sample Torquay�s particularly special brand of nightlife, many
of the competitors didn�t seem too upset with a light force 2 and clear
blue skies on Saturday morning.
A highly competitive 400 fleet gathered on the start line for the first
race and with the wind building slightly to a force 3 it looked as though
we were in for some great sailing. Roger Gilbert and Richard Brown
sailing Fat Face made the best of the start and beat to arrive at the
windward first followed by Tom Halhead and Chris Priest. Despite massive
amounts of team racing and match racing experience between them, Tom and
Chris still decided it would be a good idea to arrive on the port lay
line and tack round the mark in front of Nick Craig and Keith
Bedborough. This was quickly followed by some spins and then a slow and
painful drift back down the fleet. A close battle for second place
ensued between Nick Craig and Keith Bedborough, Chris Jennings and Ed
Nicklin and Stuart Hudson and Adam Heely. However nobody saw Tubby
O�Brien and Colin Staite coming, as they gradually clawed their way from
8th to take second place behind Gilbert and Brown. Hudson and Heely came
out on top of the rest to take a very credible third.
By the start of the second race at least half the fleet had figured out
that the lobster pot half way down the line wasn�t actually the pin end,
which just left the other half of the fleet wondering why there wasn�t a
general recall. Hywel Roberts and Melissa Storey made no mistakes though
as they popped out of the mele� at the starboard end and shot up the beat
to arrive first at the windward mark. As the wind gradually dropped,
Hywel and Melissa showed excellent boat speed and held their nerve to
take the win despite being pushed hard by Gilbert and Brown in second and
Craig and Bedborough in third. Hudson and Heely continued their
consistent performance to take fourth.
By the start of the third race the whole fleet had now found the pin end
but this didn�t mean they had spotted the wind shift as most started at
the starboard end again. This left the way for a small pack lead by
Robin Kenyon and Toby Lewis to fly out of the port end and cross the
fleet�s red faces. Gilbert and Brown arrived at the windward mark first
followed by Kenyon and Lewis in Proctor Masts and a chasing pack of
O�Brien, Woods and Craig. With the threat of a calming wind a smaller
course had been laid for the last race and this lead to some very tight
racing in the chasing pack. Gilbert and Brown sailed away to take the
win whilst Kenyon and Lewis found their form to come out on top of the
rest and take second. Craig and Bedborough came in third with Woods
finally making his mark in fourth.
With all the RS fleets gathered together for an evening at the Royal
Torbay Yacht Club the usual entertainments soon ensued. A later move to
one of Torquay many salubrious night spots involved a large amount of
girls� trousers to blokes� shorts swapping as the ever scruffy 200 fleets
tried to blag their way past Torquay�s mild mannered bouncers. I only
feel sorry for the poor girl who happens to be the same shape as Pete
Vincent. Although there are a few expectant mothers in the fleet! The
effort was well worth it as Torquay�s most beautiful ladies were more
than happy to entertain certain sections of the fleet.
Due to the Paignton-Torquay marathon being run on the Sunday morning a
particularly early start was planned, however the weather had other
ideas. The fleet was greeted with a millpond like Torbay and the
prospects of a long day. After a 2 hour postponement and the wind
showing signs of filling in the PRO sent the fleet to sea. However a
steady wind continued to prove illusive. With the on set of rain and
miserable faces in the fleet the PRO took the only sensible decision and
called it a day. This meant that Gilbert and Brown won the event with an
excellent 4 points from three races. Craig and Bedborough took 2nd and
Roberts and Storey sailed well all weekend to take third. Woods and
Fletcher�s gradually improving results earned them fourth overall.
1 1161 Roger Gilbert Richard Brown 77 4 1 2 1
2 1038 Nick Craig Keith Bedborough 79 10 4 3 3
3 1102 Hywel Roberts Melissa Storey 87 15 7 1 7
4 1100 T Woods I Fletcher 38 15 6 5 4
5 896 Chris Jennings Ed Nicklin 66 16 5 6 5
6 1175 Greg O'Brien Colin Staite 1 17 2 9 6
7 1211 Stuart Hudson Adam Heely 86 17 3 4 10
8 1182 Phil Jackson Gerard Barron 39 28 9 10 9
9 921 Giles Chipperfield Heather Chipperfield 5 31 10 8 13
10 835 Tom Halhead Chris Priest 22 36 11 13 12
11 1183 Robin Kenyon Toby Lewis 54 37 28 7 2
12 592 Malcolm Green Martin Green 62 37 14 12 11
13 1113 Jez Entwistle Rachel Jones 49 41 8 16 17
14 1208 Jason Pyke Andrew Bonsey 80 44 25 11 8
15 1205 Chris Bailey Matt Bailey 75 46 12 15 19
16 1155 Mark Reddington Phil Scott 55 46 13 18 15
17 1129 Martin Browne Dinah Holmes 16 47 17 14 16
18 1188 Paul Rees Sue Rees 13 54 21 19 14
19 1158 S.Robertson M.Bath 14 54 19 17 18
20 1073 Adam Oliver Clare Fowler 78 59 15 23 21
21 1027 Andy Crowther Stewart Jagger 68 59 16 20 23
22 1213 Alex Southow Charlie Merchant 6 61 20 21 20
23 1077 Alex Willard Becca Willard 11 68 24 22 22
24 1199 Tim Sands Peter Warburton 10 72 23 24 25
25 1189 Nick Holt John Badman 9 74 18 28 28
26 950 Neil Peacock Sue Peacock 70 75 26 25 24
27 1200 John Callaghan Becks Hobson 53 78 22 28 28