Results / Open Itchenor SC - 19/05/2012

The fourth round of the RS300 Scottish Series was held at Chanonry Sailing Club on the 7/8th August and benefited from the generous sponsorship of Caley Marine. The sunny blue skies on Saturday produced a beautiful force 4 sea breeze, which was enjoyed by all 7 competitors. Three races were sailed and they all followed a similar pattern with Ian Baillie leading from early on to win each race. There was not much in it in the first 2 races but Ian was able to play the shifts in the final race, rather than defend his position and worked up a substantial lead. Neil Beveridge led the chasing group, scoring 3 seconds, just ahead of Ben Yeats and Eddie Griffiths. Slightly further back, Andrew Grant, Gavin Marshall, and Dave Masson fought out close battle. Sunday began overcast but with a rising wind that was beginning to build up a difficult chop over the shallow race area. Neil Beveridge used his extra leverage to power upwind with Ben, Eddie and Ian just behind. Eddie fell in spectacularly on the second reach and the leaders closed up to a few boat lengths for the next lap. But coming to the bottom mark for the second time, Neil�s halyard parted and his race was over. Ian then scraped ahead of Ben at the final windward mark and held on down the roller coaster reaches to win. We now had cloudless blue skies for the final race and more wind. Neil led again at the first mark with Ian and Andrew chasing. But Neil soon capsized leaving Ian to sail off into the distance. The second reach was now very difficult, being at the perfect nose diving angle for the RS300, with the steep waves providing more traps for the unwary. With the others in the spin cycle, Ian continued round to win again, only succumbing to a quick dip just before the finish line. Neil was the only other boat to finish.