Harken 29er Grand Prix Round 8 at Datchet Water Sailing Club

Harken 29er Grand Prix at Datchet © Paul Hammett

Harken 29er Grand Prix at Datchet © Paul Hammett

Harken 29er Grand Prix at Datchet © Paul Hammett

The final Grand Prix in the 29er Harken series was hosted by Datchet Water Sailing Club.

After a difficult and slow launching process the 63 boats, split into four flights, arrived onto the course which was shifty and patchy. Felix Crowther and James Cook fought off the competition to win race one for one flight, whilst James Grummet and Dan Budden won the other flight.

Race 2 was again won by James and Dan; with the other flight being dominated by Dan Venables and Paddy Keech who are currently on excellent form with 3 GP wins since September.

In very light breeze with unpredictable shifts, race 3 saw the previous race winners outside the top ten, it was Huw Edwards and Josh Dawson taking one win; whilst Jess Hammett and returning 29er veteran, John Mather, the other.

The final race of the day was held in fading light and with a desire to return to shore, James Eales and Henry Collins won convincingly, James and Dan added another win to their impressive tally.

With the 'tide' well & truly out on Queen Mother reservoir, the recovery process was even more time consuming, the leaders of the first flight de-rigged and changed whilst the middle fleet of the second were still floating around waiting for space on the pontoon.

Day 2 was shared with the club sailors, so the course was crammed into the top half of the reservoir, this didn't deter Dan and Paddy as they got their second win of the GP in 12 knots of breeze. Elliott Wells and Jake Todd also added a bullet to their score sheet.

Dan and Paddy equalised James and Dan's number of wins after race 6; Courtney Bilborough and Hatty Ward came form behind on the last lap to also seal a win. 29er new comers Piers Nicholls and Josh Boniface were at the tail end of the fleet until the final beat when a favourable right shift took them up to 4th highlighting the 'snakes and ladders' conditions. Crispin Beaumont and Tommy Darling won flight two despite their lead being halved in a nerve racking final leg as their spinnaker got stuck mid way up.

Dan and Paddy, however, excelled in the conditions and won the final race taking the GP in the process.

The Harken GP series finished incredibly tightly, Dan and Paddy's win over James and Dan's second meant they they won the overall series on count-back as they both finished on 15 points.

Overall Results:

2014 Harken Grand Prix Series Overall: