Results / RS Fat Face Racing Circuit WPNSA - 02/07/2005

Last weekend saw the newly declared 2012 Olympic Sailing Venue - Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy hold the penultimate event of the RS400 Fat Face Racing Circuit before the nationals. After a short delay Race 1 got away in a steady 18 knot breeze, with Tom Halhead & Christian Humphrey leading the fleet around the windward mark only to suffer a slight navigational faux pas; blasting off to the nearby 200 course. Saner heads prevailed and in a relatively short race Nick Craig / James Stewart sailed through to take the win from Craig Burlton / Andrew Bonsey and Chris Jennings / Ed Nicklin. Whilst the breeze was the same for the second race it was all change with the course � with a 75 minute epic set. Craig and Stewart lead from start to finish to take a large win, followed by Jennings / Nicklin and Chris Gowers / June Riley. A lap was chopped off for the final race of the day with Jennings / Nicklin taking the bullet to leave them with 3,2,1 for the day � sadly this was all they had time for and legged it home on sat night. Craig and Stewart were showing ominous consistency with a second, and Burlton / Bonsey in third. Sunday dawned overcast, and the sail out to the start was very light indeed. Race 4 got away in about 5 knots of building breeze, and light weather specialists Rob and Jan Martin made the most of the conditions to take a commanding lead at the windward mark. Despite being put under pressure by Burlton / Bonsey late on, and having to chase a windward mark mysteriously moving around in a RIB, they took a well deserved win with Burlton second and Steve Venables / Rich Brown third. The breeze had built to marginal planing conditions for the second of the day, which the Craig / Stewart team made the most of for another win, whilst Chris Gowers / June Riley�s sense in taking the left hand side of the course was rewarded with a second, Burlton and Bonsey rounding out the top three. The final race of the day saw Craig / Stewart take an early lead only to be passed by Burlton / Bonsey at the final leeward mark, with Paul Hilliar and Toby Ashton in third. This gave the event to Craig / Stewart, who despite claiming they�re sailing the boat very little (although some Stokes Bay residents disagree) are showing worryingly good form in the run up to the Nationals. Thanks go to our Sponsors, Fat Face for another generous allocation of prizes, and to WPSA. The circuit rolls on to what has the makings of a great event at Parkstone the weekend after next, with the Eurocup in La Rochelle and Nationals in Abersoch contributing to what should be a fantastic summer!