News
Wed 7 Nov
Fantastic Firecracker!
21 boats, 3-9 knots, Results
Triumph for Pete Vincent & Jo Holden, BCYC18 home boats and 3 visiting teams had glorious warm autumn sunshine, light northerlies, forgiving neap tides and amazing displays of shoaling birds for the final Itchenor RS200 event of 2007… all immaculately managed by top race team Nigel Pattison, Caroline Marriage and Carolyn Brigg.
Overall winner and carrying on from his victorious RS200 Irish Nationals was Mr Pete Vincent with crew Jo Holden in 1077 “The Good The Slim and The Ugly”, dominating the event counting three 1sts and a 2nd.
2nd overall, and lying one point behind team Vincent/ Holden after Saturday’s 3 superb races was top Itchenor boat Andy Fitzgerald and Clare Senior with a consistent 3, 2, 2. Although keen to go one better on Sunday and match his son’s performance in the 29er up in Grafham, and have overall victory, a dip in form let the Vincent/Holden pair pull away, but they did enough to hold off a flying Paul Lewis and Emma Clarke from Burghfield SC in “Fat Face Team Kit”, who were on fire in Sunday’s first race producing an inspired and untroubled win, leading from start to finish, followed by a 3rd in the second, making them highest climbers for the day. Mid-table Saturday evening to a clear 3rd by close of play Sunday.
Charlie Room and Lucy Mathews in 766 were first out of the blocks on Saturday pulling out an impressive lead off the start line and taking control of the fleet for a comfortable win and looking like potential champions, but they took their foot off the gas in the next 4 races, claiming 4th overall, one point ahead of 486 Richard Neall & Sara Terry.
One other boat on a mission on Sunday’s more challenging conditions, was 1235, Philip Pascall and Sue Kalderon, who after mid-fleet positions and an OCS on Saturday got smartly in the groove half way round race 4, and proceeded to demolish the middle of the fleet sailing through up into a clear 3rd, and promptly followed that with an even more impressive 2nd in race 5.
Unfortunately the wind didn’t quite hold for the final race, but the Firecracker had already decided its new champions from Bristol Corinthian YC Pete Vincent and Jo Holden….proving you don’t need to be featherweight to win in light airs…
Mike Jaffe won comedy moment of the weekend by falling out of the boat for no apparent reason, other than claiming he was feeling a bit warm…and David Leach and Peter Hansell were somehow competing in the middle of the fleet in the first two races on Saturday…not exceptional….except they had left their bung out…Race three didn’t go so well.….and special thanks to Lucy Mathews for taking the initiative and giving an informal and insightful crew talk on Saturday over tea.
Full results here
Richard Neall