2003 National Championships by Frank Smith
Our 2003 National Championships were
sailed at Rutland Water in near
perfect conditions (except of course for those who perfer stronger
winds).
Together with the Comets and Trios we made quite an impressive Comet
Dinghies fleet but careful race management throughout the weekend
and the
room for larger courses ensured the various classes never really interfered
with each others racing.
Eight Duos took to the water for the
first race on Saturday morning including two
taht were sailed single-handed. For this race we had a simple course
consisting
of a windward leg, a spacer mark to round & then back again on
the leeward leg.
Stephen and Andrew Linton from Hawley Lake were the first to finish
from the
main fleet with Richard Gower and Barbara Gauntlett beating their
fellow
HPYC club members Rod Mount and John Dixon for second place.
Jane Townsend finished the single-handed race ahead of her fellow
Cransley SC member John Linnell.
There was some confusion during the
second race when one of the marks at
the windward end of the course was found to have moved. This probably
hadn't
affected the results of the Duo's race very much but this wasn't clear
to the
Race Officer who did the right thing and abandoned the race.
With such a large course and boats in several fleets scattered about
the
lake it took a while to get all competitors back behind the line for
the re-run.
Frank and Mary Smith who started the original race well but couldn't
maintain
their lead on the downwind legs were glad of the second chance and
went
on to finish first followed by Rod Mount & John Dixon. Stephen
& Andrew Linton
were third - their worst result of the weekend which they were eventually
able
to discard ! This time John Linnell beat Jane Townsend in the single-handers.
The same type of course was used for
the two back to back races on the Sunday
morning. Dickie Gower and Barbara Guantlett looked to be making a
contest of
it and beat Stephen and Andrew Linton in race three but then couldn't
stop them
from winning race four.
With Stephen and Andrew Linton the clear
National Champions a tie breaker
gave second place to Dickie Gower and Barbara Gauntlett and third
place to
Rod Mount and John Dixon. Henry Loweth and Chris Wood sailed consistently
all weekend for fourth place.
John Linnell was not able to take part
on the Sunday so Jane Townsend sailed
the one race needed to break the previous day's tie and ensure she
won the
single-handed trophy.
As we returned to the clubhouse darkening
skies heralded an ominous looking
weather front fast approaching Rutland Water. A short while later
a vicious squall
moved rapidly across the lake and flattened virtually all the boats
on the water -
some of which obviously broke class speed records before cartwheeling
over.
Rod & John who had been looking for a bit of 'decent' wind all
weekend pretended
that they felt cheated by the elements and no doubt would have coped
in these
conditions always assuming of course they could have seen through
the lashing
rain and managed to tack through the upturned hulls of us lesser mortals.
RESULTS,