Results / RS Fat Face Racing Circuit & Scottish Championships Largs SC - 28/05/2005
15 RS300s came to the line for the RS UK Fat Face and Scottish
Championship held at Largs Sailing Club over the weekend of the 28th 29th
May.
Those who arrived on the Friday evening were greeted with 50 knot winds
so it was not a total surprise when Saturdays racing was blown off.
However, the wind had dropped to around 15 knots with bright sunshine
when the racing began on Sunday but with a very difficult sea left over
from the high winds, which was described as lumps rather than waves.
John Carron, all the way from Milton Keynes was first away in race 1,
with an excellent start at the port end as a rain squall caused some to
struggle. John led the first lap but Ian Baillie of Dalgety Bay had
closed up and powered past on the next windward leg. These 2 built up a
substantial lead over the rest of the fleet, finishing in that order with
Neil Beveridge of Prestwick 3rd from Ben Yeats of Chanonry and Port
Edgar�s Eddie Griffiths.
Baillie was first to the windward mark in race 2 with Carron and newcomer
John Wilson in hot pursuit. There was little difference down wind, but
Baillie had that bit of extra speed again upwind, to hold them off, with
Carron again second. Griffiths sailed a great last lap to snatch 3rd away
from Beveridge and Wilson.
Carron led at mark 1 in the next race but Baillie caught a few waves on
the first reach to pass and was able to defend his position for the
remainder of the race. Again there was a great tussle for 3rd with
Beveridge coming in ahead of Gavin Marshall from St Mary�s Loch and
another Milton Keynes traveller, Paul Barker.
Baillie executed a perfect port tack start for race 4 to build an
unassailable lead and win again. Carron was back in the pack but fought
his way to another second place, with Yeats, Beveridge and Greg Barton of
Glossop just boat lengths behind.
At the end, Ian Baillie added the Scottish Championship Quaich to his
National title with a convincing victory. However John Carron is sure to
improve as he gets to grips with the RS300 in waves and will be a major
contender at the Nationals in September.
Chris Morrissey was the first A rig and was grateful for the generosity
of the Scots in allowing him to race despite forgetting his passport.
With many thanks to Largs SC who hosted an excellent event in a truly
spectacular venue.
1. 445 Ian Baillie Dalgety Bay 3 1 1 1 1
1
2. 420 John Carron Milton Keynes SC 6 2 2 2
2 2
3. 416 Neil Beveridge Prestwick 10 3 3 4 3
4
4. 352 Ben Yeats Chanonry 14 4 4 7 11
3
5. 490 Eddie Griffiths South Shields SC 14 5 5 3
14 6
6. 410 Greg Barton Glossop & District SC 17 6 6 8
6 5
7. 395 Paul Barker MKSC 18 7 12 6 5 7
8. 439 John Wilson Preswick/Edinurgh Univ 20 8 7 5
10 8
9. 431 Gavin Marshall St Mary's Loch SC 23 9 11 10
4 9
10. 403 Andrew Grant Pentland Firth YC 28 10 8 12
9 11
11. 430 Chris Morrissey MKSC 30 11 13 13 7 10
12. 366 Barry Steel Aldenham SC 30 12 9 9 12
12
13. 450 Mark Henman Sunderland YC 34 13 10 11 13
14
14. 333 James Phare Ripon SC 35 14 16 14 8
13
15. 319 Kevan Paul MKSC 48 15 16 16 16 16