Fed Week Event News
Day 3 - Wednesday 12 August 2009
A cracking breeze of 12 to 15 knots, west south-west greeted some 340 starters on day 3 of Fed’ Week . On Series 1 the start line was near N.E. Sandhead with a beat to Calvert For the first time in the week all fleets were under way at the first attempt.
Despite the Race Officer trying to tempt competitors to work the Thorney shore by putting the start on that side of the channel, all but a few opted to cross the tide for the East Head shore, which proved to be tactically correct.
The Foilers and Asymmetrics were again dominated by Lennon and Brotherton. The Int14 of the Partingtons was almost 5 minutes late at the start! In the Medium Asymmetrics the 29ers took the first two places across line with ISO 1037 being close, but not close enough to make their handicap on corrected time. The 400s and Fast H’cap had good racing, managing to complete all 3 rounds of the large course, with many crews tired tonight. The two RS 600s were first to finish but David Sayce and Graham Williamson in their Merlin were not far behind and looked good to secure handicap honours.
There was a popular winner in the Elites with Anthony Penfold edging out No 24, Ian Andrew. The Fifteens also had a different winner with Ian Nicholson sailing his brand new boat to victory and keeping the event open. Mark Woods was a close second. The Finns saw a third win for John Tremlett, who secures the series with 2 races in hand, although a trophy remains for the last race.
On Series 2 a strong flood tide and an ‘I’ flag still proved insufficient to curb the enthusiasm of the 40 strong RS200 fleet, who presented the series with their first general recall. The subsequent black flag tamed the eagerness, with all classes then away in good order, apart from two lasers who returned after being caught OCS. One of these, M Jones 176864, recovered by the end of the first round to subsequently cross the finish line in first place. In the RS 200s James Peters was not leading at the end of either the first or second round, but did so when crossing the finish line.
Solo 4916 Simon Notley, MRSC had a great start to maintain a lead to the finish, ahead of Nick Rawlings, HISC, and open up the competition at the top of this very competitive fleet. The Blaze of Martin Preston QMSC led the Medium handicap fleet home. In the Fevas, father and son team Rob and Elliot Wells 1096, dug deep on the last lap to claw back 2 places crossing 2nd behind 2582 Tony Hodge of CYC.
On Series 3 all classes enjoyed two full 45 minute races. In the Toppers, Joe Simmons 45530, Portchester , has established a convincing lead with a further 2 wins, although Jamie Catchpole 45530 still has enough races to maintain a challenge. In the Optimist both Sam Yearsley 5741 HISC, and David Brand 1646 HISC each took a first and second place, to give Yearsley the overnight lead.
Robert Macdonald
Day 2 - Tuesday 11 August 2009
At 11.00 a north westerly 10 knot breeze was blowing in Chichester Harbour. At 13:00 hrs as the land heated up it started to diminish so all competitors were held ashore. By 14:00hrs there was no wind at all. Would the sea breeze fill in? …….YES! It came in at 14:45hrs from 215 degrees and the fleets were released. Series 1 was underway at 15:30hrs.
Mike Lennon went for a port flyer in his moth but was too early and had to return ‘round the ends’. He recovered to be the first boat home after completing 4 rounds. The first asymmetric was 49er GBR9 sailed by Olympic sailors Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith with a substantial lead of almost one lap over the Int 14s, RS800s and RS700s.
The medium asymmetric fleet were led home by the 29er but the first ISO, 1037 was close behind. The RS400s enjoyed anther close race with 783 Mark Littlejohn and Emma Clarke taking the gun. The fast handicap fleet were eager to get under way but most of the fleet under estimated the tide necessitating a general recall. They restarted cleanly apart from a Laser 3000 who was OCS in the last minute. The RS 600s were ‘on fire’ in this class today with 967 crossing clear ahead at the finish but unable to hold their position on corrected time against the leading Merlin Rocket 3652 sailed by David Sayce.
The RS Elites, Fifteens and Finns all had a shorter race due to concerns for a receding tide across the Stocker Bank. The Ian Andrew Elite 24 eventually secured a second win, as did 3904 Andrew Jameson and Richard Kent in the Fifteens. The closest finish of Series I came in the Finns with John Tremlett 642 just edging out Neil Robinson 679 on the line, after the fleet had similarly misjudged the tide and needed a general recall and black flag on the restart.
On Series 2 a few of the 40 RS 200s who had signed out to race, were slow to leave the beach after the postponement, missing their start. Clive Eplett and Karina Gilbert in 537 sailed well from the start to take the gun some 4 ˝ minutes ahead of the second boat. The 200s , medium handicap, solos and Laser Radial were all started under the ‘I’ flag, resulting in a total of 12 boats being recorded OCS, and only 5 miscreants returning correctly. The Solo fleet enjoyed extremely close racing with Nick Rawlings 4669 taking the over-night lead, one point ahead of Chris Powles.
On series 3 two races were completed with a larger Slow H’cap fleet, with Elliot Spensley–Cornfield holding prime position after 2 firsts and a second., in his Tera. In the Optimists David Brand holds first position after Sam Yearsley had a mediocre 7th place in the first race, whilst Joe Simmons took 2 firsts to lead the Topper fleet ahead of Jamie Catchpole.
A classic Fed’Week day’s racing with a good sea breeze on the top of the tide in the beautiful Chichester Harbour.
Robert Macdonald
Day 1 - Monday 10 August 2009
An eventful first day with a strong south westerly wind recording gusts of 20 knots greeted some 300 competitors on the first day of Federation Week. For the Series 1 classes the start line was close to Thorney, gave the competitors a beat against the tide to Calvert with virtually all the boats heading for the East Head shore. Mike Lennon in his foiling Moth sailed brilliantly to complete 3 rounds of the large course in just 1 hour 27 minutes.
The Asymmetrics were led home by Richard Lovering after 2hours 04minutes in his Musto Skiff, The Partingtons in their Int. 14 led for much of the race but spent too much time on their side in the difficult conditions. The 29ers dominated the Medium Asymmetric fleet Alex Mitchell winning confortably.
The RS400s enjoyed close racing with the first three changing places, resulting in Matt Johnson (1124) winning through for the finish. Keith Walker in his fireball revelled in the conditions to lead the Fast H’cap across the finish line, enjoying it so much that he sailed an additional round! – but did he do enough to save time on the leading Merlin Rocket of David Sayce?
The Fifteen fleet were led by Russell Peters after a general recall, but gear failure allowed Andrew Jameson and Richard Kent through to win. The RS Elites had a guest helm Sean Hopkins in No 24 taking the gun, whilst the Finns saw a battle between John Tremlett and Neil Robinson with Tremlett proving the victor.
In Series 2 the Race Team calmly dealt with an engine fire on the way to the start line, before efficiently setting a perfect course whilst engineers inspected the damage. Only one of 2 OCS RS200s returned, and the strengthening breeze, whilst allowing all fleets to complete the course, sorted the men from the boys! James Peters and Alan Roberts who led the RS200 fleet crossed the line well ahead, only to learn they were the rogue OCS starter. Sadly the conditions proved too much for one classic National 18 sailing in the Medium H’cap, whose well known helm was so enjoying the conditions only to find that 1950’s build quality could not withstand gusts of 20 knots!
The conditions proved challenging for the Series 3 fleets, although all classes started cleanly. Sadly about a third of the fleet retiring either before or soon after their start, Jamie Catchpole continued the family reputation by winning the Toppers, and Sam Yearsley led the Optimists across the line. With so many retirements, the Race Officer decided that one race was enough for the day.
Robert Macdonald
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