RS400 Northern Tour Round 2 at Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club
by Paul Allen 19 May 2014 13:11 BST
17 May 2014
RS400 Northern Tour at Leigh & Lowton © Michael Baldwin
A Flash full of open water swimmers greeted 9 Leigh & Lowton home boats and 7 visitors on Saturday 17th May, for round 2 of the Northern Tour. As the athletic wetsuit wearers headed home for granola the somewhat paunchier 400 teams tucked into bacon and eggs care of the brilliant galley. The Met Office predicted light SW winds, slowly building throughout the day. Spot on, however they didn't predict a fluctuating breeze which couldn't make it's mind up, a race officers nightmare!
The competitive fleet saw lots of place changes and a zephyr here and there put life into spinnakers whilst others watched and drifted. Josh and Patrick Metcalf made sense of the testing conditions to post 2 bullets before the lunch break. Dave Exley and Nigel Hall and Wayne and Deb Fletcher also sailed consistently with top 3 places.
Following a lunch of chips and Mexican chicken wraps the fleet launched into a steady (compared to earlier races) SW force 2 with the odd gust allowing crews to remove their legs from the chute. The improved conditions allowed Mike Baldwin (PRO) to set a longer course, utilising the length of the flash and allowing more tactical racing. Paul and Michael Allen won race 3 with Wayne and Deb Fletcher in 2nd and Hamish Gledhill and Simon Dowse in 3rd.
The 4th and final race was a showdown. Josh and Patrick had to finish ahead of Wayne and Deb to take the win. Following a general recall the fleet avoided the black flag and set off in hot pursuit of Chris Pickles and Matt Sharman who won the race by some distance. Wayne and Deb Fletcher made the most of the Metcalfs misfortune (broken tiller joint) and finished 2nd, enough to take the win counting 6 points. Josh and Patrick Metcalf claimed 2nd on 6 point. Chris Pickles and Matt Sharman rounded off the top three on 9 points. Only 4 points separated 1st to 5th!
Wayne Fletcher thanked Leigh & Lowton for a sunny day's sailing and promised to bring his quadcopter to the next event so we can see a bird's eye view of how stupidly fast they are in light winds!
More photos from the event can be found here.
The fleet next visit East Lothian YC for the Scottish Championships on 7/8 June. See details at www.elyc.org.uk/Default.aspx?pageId=1845545 Cheerio the nou!
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Crew | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | 1029 | Wayne Fletcher | Deb Fletcher | Scaling Dam SC | 2 | ‑4 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| 2nd | 1215 | Joshua Metcalfe | Patrick Metcalfe | Y Felinheli/LLSC | 1 | 1 | 5 | (DNF) | 7 |
| 3rd | 703 | Chris Pickles | Matt Sharman | Delph | 4 | ‑5 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| 4th | 1186 | Dave Exley | Nigel Hall | LLSC | 3 | 2 | ‑7 | 4 | 9 |
| 5th | 1395 | Paul Allen | Mike Allen | LLSC | ‑7 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| 6th | 1014 | Hamish Gledhill | Simon Dowse | West Riding | 6 | 3 | 3 | ‑8 | 12 |
| 7th | 1396 | Richard Catchpole | Mark Atherton | LLSC | 5 | 7 | (BFD) | 5 | 17 |
| 8th | 1131 | Ben Williamson | Charlie Ticehurst | Welton SC | 8 | 10 | 6 | ‑11 | 24 |
| 9th | 1216 | Caroline Exley | Jude Allen | LLSC | ‑9 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 25 |
| 10th | 725 | Bill Kenyon | Andy Dawson | LLSC | ‑14 | 9 | 12 | 6 | 27 |
| 11th | 1161 | Ben Robertson | Meg Hobson | | 13 | ‑14 | 9.5 | 7 | 29.5 |
| 12th | 1191 | Louise McKeand | Geoff Edwards | LLSC | ‑12 | 11 | 9.5 | 10 | 30.5 |
| 13th | 1091 | Stuart Belfield | Cath Belfield | LLSC | 10 | ‑13 | 11 | 12 | 33 |
| 14th | 1289 | Mark Lunn | Steve Blackburn | LLSC | ‑15 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 38 |
| 15th | 595 | Steve Harrison | Liz Gallimore | Chester | ‑16 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 43 |
| 16th | 1212 | Gary Knott | Helen Blackburn | LLSC | 11 | (DNF) | DNC | DNC | 45 |