Sprint 15 Winter TT at Queen Mary Sailing Club

Sprint 15 Winter TT at Queen Mary © Gordon Goldstone

Sprint 15 Winter TT at Queen Mary © Gordon Goldstone

Sprint 15 Winter TT at Queen Mary © Gordon Goldstone

On Saturday February 19th the Sprint 15 fleet visited Queen Mary for the fourth event of their Winter Series. The weather on the day was distinctly chilly and overcast and to cap it off, a light drizzle was falling. Despite the conditions, the Sprint 15 Winter series competitors again turned out in force with a strong entry of 18 boats.

Race officer Paul Stainsby and his team set a square course on the west side of the Queen Mary reservoir.

At the start of the first race, Pete Slater managed to pull off the tactical move of the day by clearing the whole fleet on port tack and it really paid off. Even so, it was QM’s George Stephen who just got to the windward mark first, but arriving on port had to put in the tack, this allowed Slater approaching on starboard to power past into the lead. Close behind these two came QM’s Gordon Goldstone, Stewartby’s Jon Finch and Erling Holmberg, The chasing pack was not far behind.

Not everyone was having such a good race, Draycote sailor, Jan Elfring was well placed but hit the mark whilst trying to tack inside the starboard handed boats, whilst Carsington’s George Love somehow managed to fall off his boat!

As the race progressed, National champion Stuart Snell gradually worked his way through the field after recovering from an uncharacteristic poor start. But there was no joy for Seasalter’s Kevin Dutch who was stuck down the fleet. Shanklin sailor Liam Thon was having a good race first time out in the series as was Mike and Tony Loxley sailing 2 up.

At the line, Pete Slater held on to win, with Holmberg inches ahead of Stephen in 2nd, Jon Finch had a good race to finish 4th, Goldstone was 5th and Oxford SC sailor Stewart Pegum managed to just beat Stuart Snell for 6th.

For the start of the 2nd race, several boats sailed to the port end of the line to try and emulate Pete Slater’s 1st race tactic. This time the fleet were spread well down the line and there was little room for a port tack boat to squeeze through. George Love just made it through but several others were forced to make last second tacks as the gaps they were heading for rapidly closed down.

The beat was very true and the fleet split to both sides of the course with seemingly no advantage either way, and it was a closely bunched fleet that rounded the first mark. Stuart Snell this time had made a good start and led the fleet round the first lap, George Stephen was again near the front, close behind was George Love, Stewart Pegum and Erling Holmberg. Thorpe bay’s Howard Hawkes was having a better race, but further back it wasn’t going so well for 1st race winner Slater, or his clubmate Derek James who was trying to fend off Beaver’s Mike Robertshaw and Robert Finch from Stewartby.

At the finish, Stuart Snell held on to take the win, once again Holmberg just managed to get ahead of George Stephen and there was another good result from Stewart Pegum in 4th. George Love made amends for his 1st race swim by coming in 5th. Howard Hawkes was 6th.

After 2 races the overall winner was Erling Holmberg, his consistency with two 2nd places put him ahead of George Stephen, equally consistent with two 3rd places. The two race winners Stuart Snell and Pete Slater couldn’t capitalise on their one win apiece and came in 3rd and 4th. Stewart Pegum and Jon Finch were 5th and 6th.

The final event in the closely contested Sprint 15 Winter Series takes place on March 20th.

Overall Results:

1st Erling Holmberg (Shanklin)
2nd George Stephen (Queen Mary)
3rd Stuart Snell (Grafham)
4th Peter Slater (Draycote)
5th Stewart Pegum (Oxford)
6th Jon Finch (Stewartby)