Annual Regatta at Ripon Sailing Club
by Jennie Clark 23 Jun 2008 00:03 BST
21-22 June 2008
Ripon SC’s annual regatta was very much a tale of 2 contrasting days, with light winds and near constant rain on Saturday giving way to high winds but dry weather on Sunday.
The two races on Saturday afternoon saw competitors enjoy a steady but light wind, with little opportunity for the faster boats to pull away from the fleet. Bernard/Ellie Clark took race 1 in their National 12, with Richard Whiteley/Dan Phillips in 2nd place in an RS200. Phil Cawood took 3rd place in his Laser.
Whiteley/Phillips just pipped Clark/Clark in race 2 with just 29 seconds splitting the 2 boats on corrected time. Peter Sedgewick sailed his Mirror well to claim 3rd place in race 2.
The wind had been forecast to blow up overnight and it didn’t disappoint. A howling gust came through whilst everyone was thinking about rigging, recording 45mph and taking down the club 'party tent' with it. Promises of rising pressure lessening the wind didn’t seem convincing and by the time the fleet went out it was clear that this would be a day to practice heavy weather techniques. Ian Smith reveled in the conditions in his Solo until his rudder snapped, and a number of other boats were towed back in states of disrepair. The number of finishers was very different to the number of starters and Whiteley/Phillips were left regretting a capsize on the final leg of the course which let James and Sue Ricketts (RS200) past them into 2nd place on corrected time – they were both unable to beat the very well sailed Laser 4.7 of Robert Barnes.
A much reduced fleet went out to start race 4, but with the wind picking up more and more the OOD decided to postpone to see if the wind would lessen. It didn’t and with more boats on the bank or being rescued than actually sailing, OOD Alan Jones wisely decided to abandon races 4 and 5.
Overall Results:
1st Richard Whiteley/Dan Phillips, RS200 (Ripon SC)
2nd James/Sue Ricketts, RS200 (Ripon SC)
3rd Chris Wright, Streaker (Ripon SC)