Results / RS Fat Face Racing Circuit Aldeburgh YC - 13/05/2006

The Fat Face circuit jaunt to the East Coast went ahead as scheduled, with a nice polite force SE 1-2 coaxing 25 boats out to play. This contrasted nicely with the rather less polite spring tide rip barrelling north for the first start. Committee boat end was not so much favoured as compulsory. Tom Halhead and Chris Bishop nailed this convincingly and battled across the start line, with the rest of the fleet following anything between one and eight minutes later. The fleet was split tactically, with Halhead / Bishop deciding to try their luck at sea�and everyone else opting to go inshore. Much close tacking up the beach followed with the critical call being when to make the break for the mark. Charlie and Anne Somerset and Howard Farbrother / Louise Hoskin made the dash first, with Simon Tonks and Owen Balding reaching down on their heels. In the lap that followed Farbrother & Hoskin managed to break through and ended taking line honours from the Somersets with Tonks / Balding in third. Race two commenced with a little more breeze but similar tidal conditions, Halhead and Bishop got the idea this time and led the fleet inshore, about this time it was impossible not to notice a towering wedge of black cloud hiding behind Aldeburgh town trying to look inconspicuous. Meanwhile, people were pushing for the windward mark in much closer order with Simon / John Fulford chasing Halhead and Bishop to the mark followed by the Somesets, Farbrother and Hoskin, and Martin Browne & Dinah Holmes in quick order. The downwind that followed gave people the chance to see just how much the big black cloud really wanted to come and play. You could tell it was excited because of the jagged white flashes, the heavy rain, and the way the downwind turned into an upwind, rapidly followed by a no wind. Thankfully it behaved itself, although the fleet seemed split between huddling together for protection, and pretending they were out. The Fulfords snuck through at the finish to take first, with Halhead and Bishop losing out in second, and Tonks / Balding third. The fleet then voted with their feet and ran for the bar and the warm embrace of traditional Aldeburgh hospitality: good food, alcohol, and flinging yourself about to fiddly- dee music. Day two dawned with a much more promising F2 Westerly, and for the first race or two people could almost believe the tide didn�t matter, which was rubbish of course, but the large shifts and occasional bend kept people fully occupied trying to work out what was more important. Halhead and Bishop and the Somersets split honours for the first two races, with Browne / Holmes and Farbrother / Hoskin also regularly featuring at the front. Race management continued to keep everyone guessing by running off with the windward mark during the third race upwind, and into the fourth and last race with two boats in it for the overall Open, and anyone of four boats vying for third. After a tense tussle, the final deciding race resolved itself: Halhead / Bishop 1st, Farbrother / Hoskin second, Simon Syndenham / Aisling Bowman 3rd. Consequently Halhead & Bishop won by a single point from the Somersets, with Farbrother / Hoskin in third place overall. Many thanks to our friends at Aldeburgh Yacht Club for their practical approach to race management, large helpings of fun, and for managing to get us back to the bar before the K6s!