Results / Inland Championships Grafham Water SC - 06/10/2001

RS400 The weather forecast of gales & rain and an England match did not put off a record turnout of 84 boats arriving for the RS400 Inlands at Grafham. Saturday saw some very close racing and with 4 races in a shifty force 4- 5, gusting 7, it was a hard days sailing. The race officer knew the RS400 reputation and reached straight for the black flag in race 1 as 84 boats crammed onto the short start line. Racing was spectacular with many boats getting virtually airborne in the gusts and with so many boats crammed onto a smallish race course, there were many capsizes & collisions to keep the spectators & chandlers happy! Laser Champ Paul Goodison/James Date gave the fleet a demonstration of big fleet starting as they led to the windward mark in 3 of the 4 races and were also very quick round the racecourse, despite having only sailed the 400 a few times. They scored 3,3,2,4 to move into 2nd overall overnight. Nick Craig/Keith Bedborough showed they like it windy with 4 race wins, a result that belied the closeness of the racing. National Champions Roger Gilbert/James Stewart led for most of the opening race before being becalmed on the last run to finish 2nd. The rest of their day was solid but unspectacular with scores of 5,3,5. Endeavour Champions Jim Hunt/Paul Hobson were warming up for next weekends title defence and showed their usual great speed but a couple of OCSs put them out of the running. Nationals runner-up Craig Burlton's usual crew Andrew Bonsey was best-manning a wedding, but with ace crew Richard Brown, they got faster through the day to score 7,2,4,2 and move into 3rd overnight, whilst long-time rivals Chris Jennings/Ed Nicklin were consistent with 6,4,5 before getting OCS in the windiest last race, after working hard for 2nd place. Barry Thornton/Nick Hunt were the only other team to get in the top 5, when they vied for the lead in the last race, eventually finishing 3rd. With a force 9 forecast for Sunday afternoon, 2 quick races were efficiently run on Sunday morning. In the 1st race, Goodison/Date again led at the windward mark but this time disappeared for a large win. Hunt/Hobson led the chasing pack in 2nd, whilst Craig/Bedbourough were 3rd to give them the event with a race to spare. Burlton/Bonsey remained consistent with a 4th, ahead of Jennings/Nicklin and Thornton/Hunt. Burlton/Brown needed to win the final race to snatch 2nd overall, which they did after a close tussle between the leading 3. This finished Burltons best ever season - with a highly consistent 2nd at the Nationals, Inlands & GUL Circuit, he'll be looking to go 1 better next year! Hunt/Hobson were again 2nd to have the best day, ahead of Gilbert/Stewart and Russ Gibbs/Jayne Singleton with their best race in 4th.