GP14 Open at Tollesbury Sailing Club
by George Rogers 13 Sep 2010 13:24 PDT
11 September 2010
Many of the 22 competitors at Tollesbury found the conditions quite a challenge! With the wind gusting to 25 knots the beats were certainly hard work however the long reach from the windward mark was superb for those crews with enough bulk to fly their spinnakers. Race Officer Derek Burchell had to set the beat across the strong tide and cleverly offset the windward mark to allow for this, the line bias seemed to favour the pin end but nevertheless there was a lot of bunching at the committee boat and a few collisions did occur.
Richard Lord and Norman Brown from Seahorse SC gave their usual faultless display in all 3 races. Competition was much closer for the lesser places . James Ward and Richard Whitehill were impressive in 2nd place and as a result of them overtaking the Beharrells right at the end of the final race Ben Kaplan and Roberto Serra claimed 3rd place on count back.
Steve Corbet and Steve Browne finished 6th and won the Prize for Series 1 boats inspite of breaking their jib halyard in race 3. The youngest helm was Annabel Jones-Laurie, crewed by her grandfather, who finished in 10th place which was an excellent performance in these conditions.
After about 3 hours on the water and having shortened the final race out to the main Blackwater estuary to a single lap the fleet returned to the club for some food and to discuss what had been an exhilarating day with many moments to remember.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Crew | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | 14030 | Richard Lord | Norman Brown | SSC | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 2 | 13316 | James Ward | Richard Whitehill | PSC | 6 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 3 | 13885 | Ben Kaplan | Roberto Serra | SSC | 2 | 8 | 5 | 7 |
| 4 | 13876 | Andy Beharrell | Ian Beharrell | TSC | 4 | 5 | 3 | 7 |
| 5 | 13667 | Jim Faulkener | Steve Cooper | BTYC | 3 | 4 | 4 | 7 |
| 6 | 13003 | Steve Corbet | Steve Browne | LoSSC | 5 | 3 | 16 | 8 |
| 7 | 13870 | John Shepherd | Penny Abbott | SSC | 9 | 6 | 7 | 13 |
| 8 | 14020 | David Innes | Jon Denyer | FPSC | 7 | 7 | 23 | 14 |
| 9 | 13958 | George Rogers | Jilly Wilkinson | TSC | 23 | 9 | 6 | 15 |
| 10 | 13402 | Annabel Jones-Laurie | Ron Laurie | TSC | 8 | 18 | 8 | 16 |
| 11 | 8833 | Nick Green | Rachel Green | TSC | 12 | 11 | 9 | 20 |
| 12 | 13956 | Roger Palmer | Sarah Todd | TSC | 10 | 10 | 12 | 20 |
| 13 | 13136 | Roberto Chacon | Agata Bartoszcze | BTYC | 11 | 12 | 10 | 21 |
| 14 | 14058 | Ed Coates | Ceri Rogers | TSC | 15 | 23 | 11 | 26 |
| 15 | 11947 | Martin Smith | Scott Edwards | TSC | 14 | 15 | 13 | 27 |
| 16 | 12126 | Nick Lynn | Val Lynn | TSC | 13 | 17 | 15 | 28 |
| 17 | 13578 | Keith Toovey | Chris Higgs | SSC | 17 | 16 | 14 | 30 |
| 18 | 13798 | Gary Tucker | Philippa Parkes | SSC | 16 | 14 | 23 | 30 |
| 19 | 12??? | Steve Graham | Nicky Graham | TSC | 18 | 13 | 23 | 31 |
| 20 | 1365 | Chris Parsons | Charlotte Todd | TSC | 19 | 20 | 17 | 36 |
| 21 | 13703 | Allan Hawtin | Mike Flower | TSC | 23 | 19 | 23 | 42 |
| 22 | 9??? | Rik Alewijnse | Becky Alewijnse | TSC | 23 | 23 | 23 | 46 |