Results / Stewartby Open Stewartby - 11/09/2004

The final event in the South East Area Series was held at Stewartby on 11th September. Race officer Nigel Denchfield ran four windward / leeward races for the 21 boat entry. The sailing was exhilarating - very blustery conditions and some periods of extreme wind producing survival conditions at times both up wind and down wind. In race 1 Paul and Julie Rayson lead round the windward mark closely followed by home club boat Andi Riley and Julie Marsden. Riley got the inside track at the leeward mark and took the lead. David Giles sailing with six stone son Matt took advantage of the Raysons' retirement and gave chase but Riley maintained the lead to the finish - six laps later! Race 2 and the wind was seriously up. Riley got to the windward mark just ahead of a clump of boats but infringed and while doing turns followed by sailing over a trawled kite most of the fleet got past. A subsequent gust - easily the strongest of the day capsized nearly half of the fleet on the run ( round about the gybe sort of area! ) Riley got the kite up just in time to make full use of the gust and planed dead down wind straight at the leeward mark moving back into contention. Tim Fells, new to the class sailing with daughter Rebecca took the lead with Giles, Peters, Rayson, Howell and Riley in pursuit. A battle of attrition between the leaders resulted in Giles capsizing and dropping to sixth, Riley moved up to 3rd and Rayson took 2nd behind a Fells team who did a horizon job winning by a "where are they?" significant margin. The race officer's decision to finish lapped boats proved popular as the repeated-capsizes lead to the leaders doing seven laps while Sally Denchfield sailing with stand-in crew Martin had five capsizes in their five laps. The afternoon races were sailed in even more mixed wind strengths with some quite light periods separating the survival sessions. Tim Fells took a second win after making full use of a temporarily very port biassed start line and then fending off challenges from Giles, Rayson, Sue Antonelli and Jo ( eventual first lady helm ) In the final race with only Fells or Riley able to win overall an un-biassed start line provided a very open first beat. Giles took and held the lead followed home by Peters Riley, Fells and Rayson. The final race was made more exciting by home boat Steve and Ruth Ivory in their first class event. They managed to capsize on the windward mark ( a four foot inflatable ) and got it jammed between their jib and mast. Two laps and fifteen minutes effort from a rescue boat later the anchor for the mark had to be hauled up and passed through the gap. The race was not abandoned, there was just a very large windward mark. One final point - while rounding the "mark" someone's boom clonked the rescue boat drivers head; in any other class hitting the mark would have required turns.