Results / GUL Grand Prix Northampton SC - 07/05/2011

On the weekend of 7/8^th May 19 brave RS100 sailors braved the torrential rain and early morning start to head over to Northampton SC for the second round of the Gul Grand Prix series.

The competitors arrived at Northampton SC along with intermittent rain showers, it appeared that the wind had not quite decided what it was going to do either. The rain cleared up and the RS100 fleet geared up and headed out to complete four races in some very challenging conditions.

The wind was light, shifty and patchy coming through the trees meaning that it was a tricky day to remain consistent in the races. There were many surprised faces when the sailors saw 9 laps displayed on the back of the committee boat but with short courses we were doing 8 laps! There were four races completed on the day, with various people leading and much place changing occurring throughout the day. After the first days racing the results were extremely tight with Anthony ‘Chunky’ York leading the way on 4 points, counting two firsts and a second. Chris Larr was in second with 5 points, closely followed by Andy Couch, Jamie Morgan and Paul Childs.

On Saturday night the sailors were extremely well fed by some brilliant catering which saw a few sailors going in for seconds, claiming that they knew there would be more breeze on Sunday.

Sunday saw quite the contrast to Saturday, with 15-20 knots blowing straight down the lake meaning that the RS100’s really got to stretch their legs and they had some brilliant downwind legs.

Race 5 saw John Heissig lead from almost start to finish, the only time interrupting it was a quick swim, where he was passed momentarily, until the three boats who overtook all decided to go synchronized swimming at the bottom mark to allow Heissig to rightfully take back his first place, followed by Couch and Mark Harrison.

Race six saw even more wind with gusts hitting over 25kts. This race saw Harrison leading for the first lap to be overtaken by Childs on the second upwind leg. Harisson and Sam Vaughan chased hard but both went swimming. Heissig benefitted from this to finish second followed by Harisson in third.

After a weekend of extremes the points finish was extremely tight and no-one was quite sure who had taken the win until the results were published.

Chris Larr managed to take the event, by sailing extremely well on Saturday, which gave him enough of a buffer to give him the win, followed one point behind by Childs with Chunky and Couch a further one point behind Childs.

 

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