British Moth Open Meeting at Staines Sailing Club
by Christina Hardyment 4 Sep 2002 09:45 BST
British Moths at Staines Saturday 31st August.
Ten boats from six clubs took part in the open meeting for British Moths held at Staines Sailing Club on the River Thames on Saturday 31 August. The weather was sunny and warm with a fickle NW breeze shifting to east and occasionally dying.
In the first race Tim Hogan made a good start, closely followed by Rob Chaplin. The middle fleet changed positions with every lap. On lap 3, Hogan rounded the leeward mark and sailed into a windless hole and could do nothing to prevent Rob, Andrew Osman, Fenella Gass and Ed Chaplin sailing past. Rob was never challenged after this and Gass followed home in second place with Hogan clawing back to 3rd place.
The second race was less dramatic with Hogan establishing an early lead which was never challenged. Ed held on to 2nd place after the 2nd lap and Rob improved from 5th to end in 3rd place. Local man Gary Tomkins finished in 4th.
There was everything to play for in race 3 as at this point all boats were getting to grips with the local conditions at last and any one of 4 boats could take the The Simpson Trophy. Hogan went
out with a will to win and after a 2 lap challenge from Rob was never beaten, pulling out a substantial lead by the end of the race. This turned out to be something of a procession, but there was a good scrap for 2nd and 3rd places between Rob and Ed Chaplin with Ed finally coming out on top. 4th and 5th places were closely contended between Gass and Osman.
Overall Results:
Pos | Helm | Club |
1st | Tim Hogan | Welwyn S.C. |
2nd | Rob Chaplin | Littleton S.C. |
3rd | Edward Chaplin | Littleton S.C. |
4th | Fenella Gass | Bristol Avon S.C. |
5th | Andrew Osman | Parkstone S.C. |