Results / Draycote Dash Draycote Water SC - 25/02/2012

For the first leg of the Fat Face RS Eurocup 2004, a small fleet of RS 400s made the journey over to the Netherlands to sail on the excellent water of the Gravelingenineenegengenerenmeer. The event was hosted by Aquavitesse with facilities based in Port Zelande � the Dutch Centerparcs. Forecasts were for light airs and a busy program of 10 races over 3 days was planned. Clear favourites were Nick Craig & Keith Bedborough - the question being more whether anyone could stop them getting a perfect string of firsts. Race 1 and the lead two boats - Craig & Bedborough and John Cooper & Becci Wigley broke away and sailed off to a substantial lead. Behind this, Bill and Linda Handley looked comfortable in 3rd until they snagged the final windward mark, capsizing themselves and handing 3rd place to the Brothers Grim. Race two and the front 3 boats were a carbon copy of race one, the only exception being that the Handleys managed to keep their boat pointing the right way up and held on to 4th. The drama in Race 3 was provided Eurocup stalwart John Callaghan and his crew Jane Sutor. Whilst the majority of the fleet started from the favoured left hand end of the start line, John obviously knew better, starting at the right hand end and immediately picking up a 30 degree windshift, bringing him to the windward with a clear lead. However, it was not sufficient to keep back Craig & Bedborough and they soon sailed past take another win. However, Callaghan & Sutor sailed well and held on for long enough to take 2nd ahead on the Handleys. Sunday morning and the previous nights partying meant that it was a slightly reduced fleet that made it on to the water for the start of race 4 � as 3 boats failing to crawl out of their pits from the previous nights partying. With Craig & Bedborough still launching, Cooper & Wigley seized the opportunity to take their first race win of the weekend closely followed by the Handleys. Paul Clark and Matt Brown came 3rd. The start of race 5 saw the fleet back up to full strength and normal service was resumed by Craig & Bedborough taking the win ahead of Cooper & Wigley. The Brothers Grim took 3rd place after a close battle with the Handleys. As race 5 finished, the little wind that there was disappeared and a postponement was hoisted. After one failed attempt to get the fleet away, the wind filled in again from the opposite direction and gradually built to everyone's surprise to give on of the best races of the weekend. A close battle between the first 4 boats (Craig, Cooper, Handley and Grim) ensued with the lead changing a number of times. It was settled though at the leeward mark rounding which saw Cooper & Wigley collide with the Handleys. This enabled Craig & Bedborough and the Brothers Grim to sail off to 1st and 2nd respectively. The Handley�s held on to 3rd while Cooper & Wigley were left spinning. The building breeze held on despite some nasty rain squalls for the last race of the day. Craig & Bedborough took their 6th win from 7 races followed again by the Brothers Grim. This time however, Cooper & Wigley got the better of the Handleys to take 3rd. Sunday night saw our Dutch hosts laying on a free bar for the evening. They obviously had no idea what the RS fleet are capable of drinking when they want to. The huge list of cameras, coats and phones that got lost that evening goes some way to illustrating that it was a good evening. Special mention needs to go to Sheena Craig who led the field in the early drinking but managed to lose absolutely everything she took out. Despite the previous nights partying and largely due to a fortuitous postponement for wind, all but 2 of the fleet made it out for the start of the final days racing. Craig & Bedborough finally showed their one weakness and completely hungover, succumbed to pressure from Cooper & Wigley to finish 2nd. The Handleys came in a consistent third. Mention should be made of Brothers Grim, who after putting away an obscene amount of free booze the night before, finished in last place, just behind a couple of RS 200's. The last two races in a building breeze saw an identical top 4. Craig & Bedborough had obviously recovered sufficiently from their hangovers to get them back to the front ahead of Cooper & Wigley. Clark & Brown sailed two excellent races to beat the Handleys into 3rd place. Overall honours went (obviously) to Craig & Bedborough ahead of Cooper & Wigley whilst the Brothers Grim poor last day performance was enough to hand 3rd overall to the Handleys. Chris Bailey