Results / Gul Inland Championships Grafham Water SC - 12/10/2013

It was blowing old boots the night before and it was still exceptionally windy when I left home at 8 in the morning. By 10 am, however, there seemed to be an eerie stillness which was confirmed as I arrived at Grafham Water at lunchtime. The evidence of the previous night’s blow was scattered everywhere with Cambridgeshire liberally strewn with foliage.

Fortunately the breeze perked up just enough to get one race in on Saturday afternoon and we knew it was going to be a proper Inland Championship when we saw the first mark somewhere near he horizon. With the legs of the course longer than Elle Macpherson’s and a twitchy wind it looked like a race for brave hearts.

So, which way to go up the monster first beat? I chose left and if I’d chosen the other side I would certainly have been right. Luckily for me, though, a late left shift wafted me in somewhere close to the leading bunch of Harry McVicar, Alastair Wood and Luke Pepper.

After a slow run down Ms Macpherson’s outside leg, I like to take my time over such things, the race was thrown on it’s head up the second, shorter beat. While McVicar and Wood tacked off on a header, Steve Bolland and Richard Catchpole went right into more breeze. So excited were they by this that they had something of a coming together towards the top mark but they maintained the 1,2 to the finish somewhere near Elle’s shapely ankles. Third place went to Tim Keen, an excellent recovery having returned (unnecessarily) at the start.

A second race was attempted but, after half an hour with Pepper leading by a country  mile, it was called off as the breeze died completely. It was one of those days for young Luke, having been OCS in the first race. It couldn’t have been much worse for him if we’d had a video of him getting friendly with a sheep, but pending fatherhood will enable him to put it all into perspective. The rest of us think he deserved it anyway, having made his pregnant wife come to a wet and cold Grafham then pack up the tent and then drive him home.

After a quick drink at the club it was up to the Wheatsheaf for a meat-laden dinner for the majority of the fleet and some indescribable pasta-based dish for the vegetarian amongst us.

It rained in the night. It rained hard and we emerged from canvas tents and tin tents to a sky the colour of a Preston pavement. A brief walk back to the Wheatsheaf and a full English all round (beans on toast as the vegetarian option) saw us raring to go. No go, however, as apparently 20 knots (OK, 25, gusting 30) is too windy to go racing.

We were allowed out after a 90 minute postponement with a north-westerly force 2-3 and the windward mark once again somewhere near Ms Macpherson’s navel. Bolland led at the windward mark in race 2, tacking inside Sam Sutton-Reid. To be honest, it was good of Sam just to turn up – no-one’s seen him since last year’s Nationals. Bolland went on to win from Catchpole, McVicar, Keen and Sutton-Reid with Terry Brookes also going well.

Race 3 and Sutton-Reid went one better to lead at the first mark and down the run. There was some excellent racing going on with Sutton-Reid, Catchpole, McVicar and Bolland all line abreast as they approached the turn. Bolland managed to book the inside berth and had pulled out a useful lead by the time he reached Elle Macpherson’s rather lovely thigh, subsequently going on to win. Sutton-Reid, McVicar and Catchpole dropped back a bit as the race progressed, allowing Keen to close up on Bolland by the finish.

The wind picked up slightly for the final race. Sutton-Reid again led initially but couldn’t quite match the pace of the other leading contenders downwind. Bolland went on to win from Catchpole, Keen and McVicar who just managed to get ahead of Peter Mackin at the final mark. An impressive display from the youngster Mackin putting together a solid series.

The battle of the A rigs was decided in Mark Newton’s favour (must be something to do with the veggie diet) after Mark Henman decided not to venture out in the rain. Sensible chap.

It was good to see 2 brand new boats at the event. The trouble is they rather show up the rest of us. Next events are the RS End of Season Championship at Datchet (November 9/10) and the Winters at Aldenham (December 7/8).

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