Results / POSH Regatta Paignton SC - 07/05/2016

Saturday

After a forecast that promised a weekend’s champagne sailing an expectant fleet of 15 RS100 athletes gathered at Paignton SC on Saturday 6^th May looking to savour an adrenaline fuelled weekend. Unfortunately, the wind had not read the various forecast models, all of which had confidently been predicting 13 knots plus, and decided instead to exit stage left, leaving Torbay resembling a mill pond for much of the first day.

When finally a race got away, it was the new kid on the block, Chris Goldhawk, who sailed off the start line as smoothly as snail slime over Teflon and rounded the top mark with a large lead from Clive Eplett and the chasing fleet.

As the fleet converged on the leeward gate it was apparent that the wind was about to get “interesting” and everyone parked up to see what it was going to do. With the moths foiling on the left hand horizon it was clear which side of the beat would be favoured, and Eplett was first to creep across into the pressure, followed at a large distance by a small group of Gregory, Booth, Jones and Dickson whose drift speed enabled them to stem the tide and give chase. The rest of the fleet dropped anchor to see at close hand who would cross the finish line first while Harrison lobbied the race officer to abandon the race before he got lapped, a hope that was fulfilled with Eplett within a proverbial stone’s throw of the finish.

With the wind clearly not playing to the audience the fleet drifted in and consoled themselves with copious beer and an excellent curry in the Clubhouse, while searching the internet for a wind model that made sense of the day.

Sunday

With a similarly fabulous forecast for Sunday the fleet awoke a little the worse for wear hoping that the wind knew what was expected. After a delay of an hour it started to kick in and the swell built, most noticeably against the slipway. Encouraged by the assembled 100 sailors the Blaze’s finally plucked up the courage to try their luck on the slip and when the first ones made it off without being pounded against the seawall the 100 athletes prepared for action.

After a short warm up beat of a mile and a half to the start area in a building breeze of around 8 knots the fleet were away first time with Al Dickson winning the start at the port end. Goldhawk was one of the first to cross on port however and for the second time in succession led around the windward mark with Dickson overlapped and the fleet closely bunched behind. The pack shuffled on the run but the two leaders remained ahead to the leeward gate with a Port / Starboard coming together left Goldhawk doing turns. The next beat saw more pressure on the left and Eplett jumped to 2^nd, ahead of Wells and Jones with Goldhawk slipping back into the pack, positions that remained unchanged to the finish.

Race 2 saw a similar pattern with Dickson again winning the start and sailing off to a comfortable win, pursued by team Chew (Goldhawk and Jones) just ahead of team Frensham (Eplett and Gregory). By now the wind was more steady; although it had failed to build to the promised 14knots there was enough pressure to surf the swell downwind, while the occasional flick in direction and change in pressure kept everyone on their toes.

Races three and four followed in increasingly quick succession with similar patterns – Dickson won the starts at the port end and despite never being out of reach kept the chasing pack at bay. Goldhawk and Jones continued their personal dual for second, closely followed by Eplett, Gregory, and Booth and tight racing through-out the fleet. This was reflected in the final results, which after removing the complication of other classes mixed in the results, confirm Dickson as the well-deserved winner with a perfect score, while Goldhawk pipped Jones on countback and only 2 points separated Eplett, Booth and Gregory in 4^th 5^th & 6^th.

Thanks to Paignton Sailing Club for a great event in tricky conditions.

Photos by Liz Harrison

Andrew Jones