Larks at the Waldringfield Cartoon Trophy
by Alan Krailing 17 Apr 2017 07:27 BST
14-15 April 2017
Larks at the Waldringfield Easter Egg © Robert Deaves
Waldringfield hosted the Lark fleet for the annual Easter Egg Regatta on Good Friday and Easter Saturday. As ever the competition was hot with a strong home fleet boosted by some boats from the circuit and some guest appearances.
Saturday's 3 races saw honours shared by 3 different winners. Alan Krailing and Katie Spark took advantage of a somewhat fortunate 30 degree shift in the fickle breeze through the Rocks in the morning's race and held off a late challenge from Ian and Alyson Videlo to win race 1. Ian and Alyson showed great downwind speed in the building breeze to go one better in race 2. However the most impressive performance of the day was saved for race 3 where Harry Pynn and Gemma Cook, confused by the overlapping starts and finishes with the Regatta's other fleets, inadvertently gave the rest of the fleet a substantial lead. With the bit between their teeth they raced through the fleet like a robber's dog and dramatically snatched an inside overlap on the final leeward mark to take the win. Overnight Ian and Alyson were sitting pretty with a 1,2,2 score line.
Day 2 and the wind had increased, gusting over 20 knots. This saw a number of casualties during the course of the day and the early season cobwebs were well and truly blown (washed?) away. Somewhat surprisingly it was the upwind pace (and the lack of capsizes) from the fly weight combo of Alan and Katie that won through with 3 hard fought wins on Sunday. Behind them a 2nd in the final race was enough from Harry and Gemma to secure the runner-up slot with Ian and Alyson in 3rd. Matt White and Emma White were out just long enough to secure a 2nd in first race of the day, ahead of Steve Chatten and Char Stewart. While MJ and Fran Gifford overcame a variety of spinnaker malfunctions to take 3rd place in final race and with it 4th overall.
Thanks go to all at WSC that made the event possible, in particular Race Officers Roger Challis and Chris Fish.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | 2521 | Alan Krailing | Katie Spark | 1 | ‑3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| 2nd | 2520 | Harry Pynn | Gemma Cook | 3 | 2 | 1 | ‑5 | 3 | 2 | 11 |
| 3rd | 2491 | Ian Videlo | Alyson Videlo | 2 | 1 | 2 | (DNF) | 2 | DNF | 18 |
| 4th | 2452 | Michael John Gifford | Fran Gifford | ‑5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 20 |
| 5th | 2502 | Steve Chatten | Charlotte Stewart | 7 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | (DNF) | 24 |
| 6th | 2531 | Daniel Watson | Helen Winward | 4 | 6 | 6 | (DNS) | 6 | 4 | 26 |
| 7th | 2272 | Patrick Cooney | Aiden Jakubik | 6 | 8 | 8 | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | 44 |
| 8th | 2500 | Fiona Gray | | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | DNC | 7 | 5 | 45 |
| 9th | 2471 | Matt White | | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | 2 | DNF | DNC | 46 |
| 10th | 2500 | John Crooks | Flora Winter | (DNC) | 7 | 7 | DNC | DNC | DNC | 47 |