Grafham RESULTS and REPORT
Grafham RESULTS and REPORT
Finn Inland and Northern Championships 2008 - Results
Day 1
19 Finns planned out to the start line at Grafham, most of them twitching at the thought of racing today, the wind constantly 20+ knots and regular gusts of 36+ knots caused the emotions to run wild, the race finally got under way with John Tremlett showing what a few extras pounds can do, powering off up the middle whilst Tim Carver predictably banging the right side.
The gusts and shifts fiercely came through with enough force to knock a Boeing 747 off it’s track, but this didn’t deter the heavy weights, however for most of the fleet the battering proved too much and so one by one they peeled off and headed to shore.
1st to the mark was John Tremlett 2nd Alan Burrell 3rd Tim Carver, then came the Down hill slalom seeing many casualties on the way and further boats retiring from the racing today.
At the Leeward mark the surviving boats scrabbled to round, finishing off Phil Laycock, Howard Sellers and John Hayes, leaving 7 boats to start race 2.
Race 2 followed a similar pattern with the 7 starters quickly reduced to 5 as the gybe mark caused two more retirements leaving 5 to finish off the race. The biggest issue for most was the lack of buoyancy in the fresh water which was making climbing back in the boat a real challenge and therefore the rescue boats were very busy.
The race officer very graciously finished after 2 races deciding that 5 boats did not lends itself to an Inland Championships and so with a better forecast for Sunday racing was abandoned for the day.
Sunday
The sun came out and the wind filled in to around 10 / 12 knots which was perfect for a competitive days racing and 18 boats made the start line for an early 10am start. A starboard biased line led to some bunching and some problems for some at the committee boat end but the boats got away cleanly and John Tremlet showed the way up the first beat followed by Al Burrell, John Heyes and Martin Hughes. The courses were excellent and with no obvious bias on the upwind legs the Finns made the best of the shifty conditions with left probably paying off slightly on the approach to the mark. A lively run saw the leaders consolidate their position and after 3 laps John Tremlet took his 3rd bullet from Al and John Heyes.
Race 2 on Sunday (the 4th race of the series) was with the club handicap fleet who dared to join the Finns. 3 RS600s and a Firefly very kindly conceded the line to the Finns (or were they bullied out of the way). The line was port bias and Tremlett, Sellars and Carver jostled for the pin end only to arrive early and have to go around the ends leaving the pin to Phil Laycock who nailed the start and tacking onto port crossed the fleet. Tim Carver having rounded the ends banged the left corner (unusually for him!) and had a clear lead at the windward mark followed by Jerry Andrews, John Tremlet and Phil Laycock. The Finns were chasing the lasers and around a trapezoid course and the extra traffic was like the tail end of a Grand Prixl you had to work your way through them very carefully.
Tim sailed the perfect race (his own words!) and extended his lead throughout putting a cursory cover on the fleet upwind but he was never challenged. Al Burrell, John Tremlett and Martin Hughes gave chase and finished behind Tim in that order.
The final race of the day was back to windward leeward with a very even line and it was the usual suspects that showed first with messr’s Tremlet, Burrell and Hughes leading the way followed by new boy in the Finn James Hadden who sailed an excellent first regatta and held of Tim Carver in the last race.
It had been a good days sailing and the perfect sailing conditions on the Sunday rescued what looked like it might have been a completely blown out regatta with some very close racing and a only a couple of minutes separating 1st and 18th place throughout the day.
John Tremlet sailed a very good regatta and was crowned Inland Champion as well as Northern Champion (because it was North of Watford!!) . First master and 2nd place was Allen Burrell who with five 2nd places was Mr Consistency in the gusty conditions. Tim Carver finished 3rd beating James Hadden 4th on count back and in 5th was Martin Hughes.
This was the Finns final regatta of the year with 4/5 months of winter training to look forward to before the spring series begins. Check out the Finn website (http://www.finnuk.org.uk/) for details of the next events and possible winter training venues.
Report by
Andy Denison / Phil Laycock
RESULTS
