2022 Flying Fifteen National Championship at Hayling Island Sailing Club - Day 1
by Simon Thompson 13 Jul 2022 16:56 BST
7-10 July 2022
Beautiful sunny weather welcomed a fleet of 42 eager Flying Fifteens to Hayling Island SC for the start of the 2022 UK Nationals, but day one got off to a frustrating start with a tricky tide and even trickier wind causing no less than six failed starts, before the breeze decided to die completely for 3 hours.
The combination of late wind shifts, scrapped starts and general recalls frustrated both the Race Officer and the fleet, with a few competitors subsequently falling foul of the black flag on later starts.
Notable names taking no further part in the day's racing included Ian Pinnell & UK class president Ian Cadwallader, international class president Chris Waples, and HISC Flying 15 fleet captain Mark Nicholson.
Fortunately a sea breeze had been forecast and the fleet drifted around waiting for it to fill in. Race Officer Mark Darling had kept his patience and re-positioned the committee boat in anticipation, and when the new breeze finally appeared shortly before the 4pm cut-off time the fleet was able to start cleanly in the new south-westerly breeze.
The fleet split into two with Greg Wells leading a group out to sea to take the benefit of the flooding tide. The other tracked along the shore before tacking out to sea. The result was a slight advantage for the shore-huggers. Downwind was yet again another split between gybing and bearing off and this time it was no contest with those not gybing winning out down at the leeward mark.
The second beat served to consolidate positions with no-one in the leading group making the mistake of gybing on the second and final run.
The winning team were Richard Lovering & Matt Alvarado, with Steve Goacher & Tim Harper and George Jordan & Matt Armstrong completing the podium.
Thanks to photographer Peter Hickson for some excellent shots of the day's racing.