Scorpion Staunton Spring Sprints

Scorpion Staunton Spring Sprints © Staunton Harold Sailing Club

A sprint racing event in early April has become a bit of a tradition for the Scorpion Class with Staunton Harold SC hosting this year's event again. Held towards the beginning of the sailing year a sprint racing weekend gives sailors a great opportunity to tune their starting practice and boat handling skills with as many short races crammed into the weekend as possible.

Over the sunny weekend of the 5th and 6th of April, 16 race were squeezed in with the race officer keeping the sailors on their toes with course changes for every race. This meant that once you finished one race, you quickly needed to get the next course memorised before the 3-minute gun went for the next.

The Saturday was pretty full on, max rake at times conditions, with a number of boats taking the occasional dip in the gybes courtesy of the Staunton gusts that seemed to appear just when you were pulling the boom over. For new Scorpion helm, Imogen Wade sailing with Simon Forbes she had been hoping for some more benign conditions for her first time in a Scorpion, but she mastered the boat very quickly and proceeded to put in a solid set of results over the weekend showing that sailors fresh out of youth classes can jump in and be rapid. 420 sailor Matthew Rayner also made an appearance sailing with Pete Gray as a new pairing and quickly showed they are going to be a team to be considered this year - If you are a youth sailor and want to come Scorpion racing, then please get in contact with the Class!

Onto the Racing! In day one's breeze, Tom Gillard and Rach Gray again showed their dominance, with great starts and regularly seemed to just have a slight edge up the first beat. This meant that they won the majority of the 10 races across the day, but we're always under pressure from Pete and Matthew who punched in a solid string of 2nds. With short one lap races, the racing was always close with a lot of place swapping with Chris Martin/John Tailby, Dave Wade/Ben Rayner and Nigel Potter/Jerry Hannabuss all being in the mix across the day's races.

Scorpion Staunton Spring Sprints - photo © Staunton Harold Sailing Club

The constant course changes eventually caught people out in Race 8. Dave/Ben were tussling for lead with Tom/Rach on the long breezy run to the bottom mark. Dave and Ben gybed in a gust but capsized trying to get across to the left-hand side for a starboard rounding. Tom/Rach rounded to port and took the rest of the fleet with them up to the finish. Dave and Ben rounded to port following the fleet after their righting, but realised the error halfway up the leg to the finish and went back to unwind. This resulted in Dave/Ben slightly embarrassingly winning race 8 with the rest of the competitors scoring a DSQ!

The legendary Staunton BBQ was in action courtesy of Pete Gray and Steve Graham on the Saturday night. Many thanks to all of Staunton members on duty who helped put on the weekend and the catering across the weekend.

Sunday's conditions were lighter, but still great scorpion conditions. 3 more boats joined the racing, including the latest new boat to the fleet with Dan Henderson and Amy Clay getting their new steed on the water. They were pretty on the pace immediately and finished off the weekend with a 2nd and 3rd. Imogen/Simon rounded off a great weekend getting faster, posting a 4, 3, 5 in the last races. Shout out to Steve and Charlotte Graham who also posted some great result on the 2nd day including a 3rd and a race win in race 14, depriving Tom/Rach of another first. However, Tom/Rach's superb consistency paid, with 13 wins out of 16 races meaning they were the clear winners. Pete and Matthew got a well-deserved 2nd place overall, impressive for their first time in a boat together.

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Overall Results: