Abersoch Keelboat Week at South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club
by Jonathan Sharp 31 Aug 2011 11:10 BST
August 2011
Richard Fildes fulfilled his aim of a clean sweep of race wins to take overall IRC1 victory on his Corby 37 “Impetuous” during Abersoch Keelboat Week.
Five fleets competed in this annual event hosted by South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club and sponsored by Spar, Pannone Solicitors, TuMewn, Robinsons Brewery, Wombat Clothing, Partington Marine, Hafan Pwllheli, X Yachts, Boatshed.com and Totally Abersoch.
Good winds populated the bulk of the week with only one day peppered by rain and a vicious squall that died away to almost zero.
In IRC1 “Impetuous” was followed home by a battling trio of boats only covered by three points - Owen Griffith’s Beneteau First 34.7 “Wennol” just pipped Richard Calveley’s Elan 37 “Va Va Voom” by one point, who in turn was only one point ahead of Dave Cumaford’s Corby 40 “Converting Machine IV”. Mike Crompton’s impressive but rather cruisy Xc42 “Xpletive” was a disappointing but realistic fifth in its last regatta before being shipped to the Mediterranean. Mention should be made of Kevin Jones’s mean looking Beneteau First 50 “Predator”, a welcome visitor - bravely but short handedly crewed in the conditions.
In IRC2, Will Partington’s Corby 25 “Wil2Win” never dipped below second place all week and showed its usual exceptional pace in the lighter races. Nonetheless they only beat Paddy Atkinson's Sunfast 32i “Molissa” by one point, Atkinson’s boat actually winning more races than the Corby. Mark Blanchard’s J92 “Jenvieve” was third (unusually a rare J boat in such an event), two points clear of “Filthy Gorgeous” one of two Projection 762s in IRC2.
Seven Sigma 33s yet again demonstrated the advantage of one design fleet racing. A quick scan across the Bay always picked up some of the fleet locked in close combat or easily identified by their patriotic, coloured spinnakers. Matthew Wild’s “Sable” won by two points from the Cope/Lee/Price “Fandango” (both boats sharing the same number of race wins) with Tim Fantom’s “Ignatius“ third and the Taylor/Godfrey "Archatron" slightly more distant in fourth.
In the “Gentlemen’s (Spinnaker)” fleet Paul Johnson’s Pandora 700 won every race and was a full eight points clear of the second placed boat, the MF Spring “Sloe Gin” of James Baldwin. Paul Johnson’s Pandora was clearly the class of the field and deserved winner of this 10 boat fleet. Tying on points for third place were Wim Batist’s Beneteau First 30 “Perseverance” and "Aunt Jessie", the Beneteau First 325 of Roy and Tilly Dearden.
In the “Gentlemen’s” fleet the Bavaria 39 "Mojito" of Peter Dunlop won by four points from "Nanuk", the Moody 38 of John Rickards with "Heart of Gold", Guy Rose's Hunter Impala OOD in third place.
Please see the full results on the event website.