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Results / Reports 2009 For results from the areas
etc. please select from below :- ·
North ( ·
South ( Taplow; Kingsmead; Bewl; ·
East ( Fishers
Green; ·
West (
Shearwater; ·
Central ( Hunts; Cransley;
Banbury; · Championships ( Association 24/25 May; Nationals 11/12 July ) 2009 Orbital Results
.… ….
…. …. …. ….
…. …. ….
…. …. ….
…. …. Reports 2009 Reports have been received
from the following clubs:- Fishers Green;
Taplow Lake;
Baltic
Wharf; Winsford Flash; Bewl Valley; Nationals Comet National
Championships – Waldringfield Sailing Club Steve Harvey & Chris
Robinson Waldringfield Sailing Club on the River Deben
in The breeze increased and 2
good races were held on a 'P' shaped course. Guy sailed into the lead,
followed by local sailor Ian Davidson sailing an Xtra-rigged
boat, and Eddie Pope. As the wind increased Eddie passed Guy to win, and Ian
caught Guy at the finish to take second. Ian led race 3 from start
to finish. Simon Thompson sailed into second place on the first run. Behind
him several boats contested third place and eventually Eddie sailed clear. On
the penultimate beat Eddie caught Simon and sailed past him on the final run
to take second place. On Sunday the fleet headed
downstream to one of the wider stretches of the river. A freshening wind was blowing and with a
course including cross-river beats and interesting tactical choices the next
two races provided the best sailing of the weekend. In race 4 Eddie led followed by Simon.
Simon was initially challenged by Nick Warren, but Nick fell back to be
caught by several boats. Ian, who had been OCS at the start, recovered well
to take fifth place, just failing to catch Chris Robinson at the finish. At the start of race 5 Ian
took the lead followed by Simon, Eddie and Michael Ettershank.
Ian and Eddie capsized allowing Simon and Michael to get past. Eddie got back
into third place, and began to catch the leading two boats. On the final beat
there was little distance between Simon in first, Michael in second and Eddie
in third. They crossed the line in this order, but not before Ian had sailed
passed them all to win. For the final race the Race
Officer set a course around the island, passing the moorings in front of the
clubhouse. Ian, using his local knowledge, was first to the windward mark and
sailed through the fickle winds among the moorings before two yachts passed, creating a wash that caused much difficulty for
the following boats. Eddie was next to clear the moorings, but by this time
Ian had a substantial lead. Steve Bellamy and Simon followed. Although Simon
was caught by three chasing boats he regained the lost places to finish
fourth. After the six races Eddie
Pope had won the Nationals and Ian Davidson was Xtra
Champion. COMET OPEN – The
weather stayed remarkably fair for the Comet Open to held
at As
was the case for most of the day, all 18 boats challenged for the honours in
race one, with first place going to Mark Wilkins from After
a good rest and lunch from the resident chef, Gordon, all 18 boats again took
to the water for the afternoon. By this time the wind had dropped so, wisely,
Ken set a shorter triangular course to take account of the conditions. Once
again Mark Wilkins showed his skills by taking first place, closely followed
by Simon Thompson in a repeat of their finish for race one. They were
followed by Brian Welham in third. Neil Smith from With
an odd wind shift, typical of Bewl, the start for
race four was delayed as the first mark was repositioned, but, not to be
outdone by the, by now, light conditions, all 18 Comets crossed the start
line almost in unison. Nick Warren showed everyone a clean pair of heals
crossing the line with his only win of the day followed by Simon Thompson,
Henry Jaggers and Clive Chapman. After
a full day of racing, honours went to Mark Wilkins, followed by Simon
Thompson and Henry Jaggers. The first Xtra, sailed by John Sturgeon from
COMET OPEN AT WINSFORD FLASH S.C. ‘Crafty Coppenhall Cops
Cup’ Thirteen helms including
five visitors contested the Winsford Flash Open in
glorious sunshine and a good force 3 breeze gave the competitors a good
challenge. All used standard Comet
rigs. Race 1 got away cleanly
with only Brian Herring (WFSC) having a small incident resulting in penalty
turns. Mark Coppenhall
(Hunts SC) established an unassailable lead that he kept until the
finish. Home sailor Steve Bellamy followed
closely in second place with Dave Jobling (N Staffs
SC) in third leading the pursuing pack and John Coppenhall
(Hunts SC) in fourth. There were a
number of anxious moments for the competitors during the odd gust but no-one
required assistance from the safety boats. A slight change of course
was made at the last minute for race 2 as the wind shifted to give a new
challenge. Mark and Steve pulled clear
by the first mark from Dave Harrison (WFSC) and John Coppenhall. Ian Duerdoth
provided excitement for the race officers by capsizing directly in front of
them. Steve continued to battle with
Mark for the lead that he lost following a capsize. Mark duly won the race with Steve
second. Dave Harrison sailed a lonely
race to take third place. John took
fourth place ahead of Brian Herring and Roy Symmers
(WFSC) who had been battling at close quarters to the finish. In race 3 Keith Sowley (WFSC) led for the first part of the race from
fellow local sailors Roy Symmers, Brian Herring and
Dave Harrison. By the third lap,
however, Mark, who had been in tenth place after the first lap, had overtaken
Keith and Dave to leeward during a gust and took the lead. Steve Bellamy followed through closely to
take second place after having made a bad start. Mark began to pile on the pressure and
increase his lead during the fourth lap.
Just before the end of the race the wind died leaving the fleet
becalmed near the windward mark. Steve
managed to take advantage of these conditions and closed the gap on the
leader. However, the race for the Winsford Flash Comet open winner was already complete
with Mark Coppenhall taking first place in the
first two races. He sealed his
position with a third win even though Steve tried his hardest on the last
beat to overtake. Keith Sowley finished third in this race and Dave Harrison
fourth. This left Dave third and John Coppenhall fourth in the Open behind Steve in second and
Mark in first place. Overall Results: - 1 Mark Coppenhall (Hunts SC) 427 2 Steve Bellamy (Winsford Flash
SC) 658 3 Dave Harrison (Winsford Flash
SC) 815 4 John Coppenhall (Hunts SC) 532 5 Dave Jobling (N Staffs SC) 780 6 Brian Herring (WFSC) 730 7 Keith Sowley (WFSC) 648 8 Roy Symmers (WFSC) 115 9 Cynthia Harness ( 10 Ian Duerdoth ( 11 Ros Stevenson (WFSC) 820 12 Andy Cush (WFSC) 321 13 John Beswick (WFSC) 690 Pam Gott
/ Dave Harrison Comet Open at The day began with the usual light
wind and sunny weather associated with the Taplow
Open. The organisers had hoped for the
usual dozen or so entries but as the 10.30 briefing approached, the car park
overflowed with cars from the16 visitors to swell the 6 local boats to a
record (I think) 22 entries. Although this is a small lake there
was no problem accommodating that number of boats on the line and the race
officer set a first beat that ran almost the length of the lake with another
parallel beat on the other side of the lake.
The light, 5 mph, breeze constantly (but unpredictably) swung from S
through W to N. At the start their was
a strong veer in the last 30 seconds to change the line from starboard bias
to port bias giving a good advantage to those at the left hand end of the
line. Brian Welham
was first to the top mark but was overtaken at the first wing mark by Mark
Wilkins, Tony Best, Robin Ballam and many more as
the breeze filled in from the north and Brian was involved in a collision
with Robin. (Brian did turns followed
by more turns later in the race for other incidents). However, Mark Wilkins sailed away from the
rest of the fleet and established an unassailable lead. He was followed by Tony Best, and Robin Ballam but Brian was able to squeeze his way back up to 4th
at the end. After lunch, the 2nd race
was held over the same course with the same challenging wind with
shifts. Again there was a big shift
just before the start enabling Brian Welham to get
to the top mark first but this time he was far enough ahead to prevent the
blanketing experienced in the first race.
This race was similar to race #1 as, on this occasion, Brian pulled
out a substantial lead to the end with Henry Jaggers
and Nick Warren giving chase. Mark
Wilkins was able to pull himself up to 4th place from poor first
lap. Robin was a lowly 13th
but Tony Best had a commendable 7th. Nick Warren had been 9th and
Henry Jaggers 10th in race1. This race like #1 was marked by groups of
boats in the mid fleet and at the back of the fleet who
were constantly changing positions as the wind came and went from very
different directions. Most helms found
themselves towards the back of the fleet at least some point during the day.
A most challenging day was a common heard comment. The final race was run over a
completely new course as the wind had moved more southerly but not changed in
strength. Both Brian Welham and Mark Wilkins (the clear points leaders at that
stage) had poor first laps and Clive Chapman sailed well into the lead chased
by Robin Ballam, Tony Best and Nick Warren. However, Nick forged into the lead by lap 2
and was never really challenged. Clive
Chapman was 2nd with Robin Ballam 3rd. Tony was passed by Mark Wilkins for 4th
but Brian Welham could only get up to 6th. Much to Mark Wilkins’ and Brian Welham’s realisation they were not battling it out for 1st
and 2nd place as Nick Warren’s 3rd and this 1st
gave him 4 points to the 5 that Brian and Mark held going into the last race. Well done Nick Warren, who was first to be awarded the the new perennial Taplow Lake
Comet Trophy ( a pewter tankard). Mark Wilkins was 2nd, Brian Welham 3rd and Robin Ballam
4th. Brian Welham C711
Seven visitors and one
local arrived for the first Comet open meeting to be held at Baltic Wharf Sailing
Club. The weather was predicted to be 20+ mph winds with showers which seamed
optimistic at times. The prevailing wind (a loose term at BWSC) came from the
south so had the option to twist and turn around and through all the
buildings on the south side of the harbour. The first race was laid
with the leeward mark in a gust of wind between the buildings but, as is some
times the way, it did not hold but created some interesting movement in the
fleet for those who could hold the right line through the shifts. With close
racing throughout the fleet and nobody being able to let up for a moment for
fear of being the wrong side of the shift or worse still, caught in one of
the holes in the wind. John Coppenhall finished 1st
narrowly holding off Chris Robinson and Ben Palmer. Following lunch a figure of
eight course was laid towards the Western end of the harbour where the wind
was steadier but stronger. Brian Welham led for the
first 5 laps ahead of John Coppenhall. Chris
Robinson and Rhiain Bevan
had a close race for third until they got caught on one of the shifts beating
back towards the finish line on lap 7 and let Ben Palmer through. Chris
managed to make his way in front of Rhiain on the
final lap and hold off Emma Brisley on the beat to
the finish. The course was changed
again for the final race to include 3 or more gybes following the comment
from the OOD that “everybody was handling the gybes very well”. During the race the wind swung around to the
west a more steady and predictable direction and the sun came out to dry us
out a little. John was on course for another 1st until on the 5th
run he decided to take a sample of the bottom of the dock using the top of
his mast. Brian continued on to finish ahead of Chris and Ben. The final results were:
Comet Open at Fishers Green Sailing
Club –
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Comet |
Race 1 |
Race 2 |
Race 3 |
Points with
discard |
Final
position |
|
806 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
1st |
|
657 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
2nd |
|
273 |
11 |
8 |
6 |
14 |
7th |
|
63 |
8 |
7 |
7 |
14 |
8th |
|
518 |
9 |
13 |
12 |
21 |
12th |
|
573 |
13 |
10 |
11 |
21 |
13th |
|
178 |
16 |
16 |
14 |
30 |
16th |
|
299 |
15 |
15 |
15 |
30 |
17th |
Race 1 started well for most, starboard tack was favoured,
although some who slipped a quick ‘about’ to port were rewarded with being
able to later approach the windward mark on a right of way beat. There were plenty of long reaches and planing opportunities.
Between dropping back on all of the beats and using my lightweight to
gain some marginal advantages on the planes, all I could see were boats and
boats ahead of me. Most were whooping
and going fast, some succumbed to capsize mostly whilst reaching where an
unexpected gust can so easily unnerve the Comet equilibrium.
Lunch followed and then Races 2 and 3. The afternoon courses were ‘tweaked’ to
provide two legs of definite beats.
This added more challenge and tummy toning exercises to the day.
Comet 178 managed to add drama to Race 2, although also damaging
her reputation in the popularity rankings by capsizing on the Start Line with
10 seconds to go. The Race Officers
(Mike Jackson, Dave Pitcock) thought it funny
although Comet 560 was far from impressed as she was pushed over too, took a
soaking and was almost grounded on the leeward shore. Comet 178 helpless at being able to assist
(for fear of disqualification) nimbly righted her boat and pursued the rest
of the fleet – never catching up of course.
Race 3 went off with less mishap, but of course unknown to the
competitors at the time, this was a ‘tie-breaker’ race for many. Sailing with us throughout the day was
Comet 400 rigged as an Xtra. From where I was sailing (ie behind Comet 400 most of the time), this appeared to
afford very little handicap and provided a very efficient means of providing
more boat stability and reefing the Comet.
Positions for the individual races were:
|
Position |
Race 1 |
Race 2 |
Race 3 |
|
1st |
John Windibank (858) |
Mark Wilkins (657) |
Guy Wilkins (806) |
|
2nd |
Guy Wilkins (806) |
Brian Welham (711) |
Mark Wilkins (657) |
|
3rd |
Mark Wilkins (657) |
Guy Wilkins (806) |
Nick Warren (745) |
The tea and prize giving rounded off a pleasant and challenging
day.
The day was a ‘clean sweep’ for Chipstead
with final places for the Fishers Green Comet Open being as follows:
1st Guy
Wilkins Chipstead
2nd Mark
Wilkins Chipstead
3rd John
Windibank Chipstead
Further to making her debut last year Fishers Green SC ‘star’
Nicola Knight swept the Prize Table on her own terms, and maintaining the
same overall position she graced us with last year.
1st Lady
1st FGSC Competitor
Overall position 7th
Last but definitely not least many thanks to all of the days
‘helpers’ who perhaps played the most important parts of all.
Karen Asci/O’Brien (Comet 178)