The Equaliser II at Grimwith Sailing Club

by Keith Escritt 17 Oct 2002 16:03 BST

13th October 2002

Photo © Dave Walker Part of the fleet converges at the first offwind mark

Despite a forecast of zero wind and none anywhere on their journeys, 32 competitors arrived to find the ‘Grimwith effect’ had worked its magic again as the sun was shining and a steady force 2-3 blew down the lake!

Race one was a 90 minute ACH and at the start, Mike Greens Laser, Ian Smith/Anne Saul(Ripon) and Ben Lister/Ceri Shave in RS200s got away best. They were quickly overhauled by Paul and Mike Allen (Crosby) and Andy Riddington/Michelle (Leigh&Lowton) in RS400s. The Allens soon gained a good lead and were only caught on the long offwind legs by the two fast moving RS800s of Patrick Altoft/Mark Blackwell (Ripon) and Mike Saul/Richard Whiteley, Andy Service/Dave Walker (Glossop) in a B14 and Howard Steavenson/Phillip Wade (Tynemouth) in his Int14. As the wind increased, Green dropped back and the trapeze boats regained lost time on the 200s and 400s. Andy Straton in his Vortex and Peter Craggs/Ronnie Carters’ 29er were moving up quickly whilst Stuart Walkers Moth was recovering well from a bad start.

The finishing result showed there’s no substitute for power as Steavenson just pipped the Allens. Smiths Rs 200 split the two 400s in 3rd, Riddington 4th and they were followed by Saul and Straton with Lister, Walker, Green, and the 470 of Stan and Dawn Speer completing a multi-class top 10.

For the ‘Equaliser’ race, personal handicaps for the 90 minute pursuit were calculated based on first race results. This gave a spread of start times starting with the GP14 of Dean Lorimer and finishing with Saul and Steavenson 35 minutes later. Lorimer lead for nearly 30 minutes before fellow GP Stephen Parry/Mark Redhall (East Lancs), Joe Erskines’ Laser and the Laser II of Graham Cooke/John Cox went past. An increase to F3 was helping the trapeze boats pass the slower boats and while the heavily handicapped 400s were slowly catching, the RS800s, Int 14, 29er and Trev Jeffersons Vortex were flying. The biggest gains of all were however being made by Steve Rickwood/Dave Ingles (Laser4000) and when Cooke hit the front with 20 minutes to go, the 4000 was not far back. With 10 minutes left Rickwood looked to have it in the bag, as Steavenson had got caught up in a bunch and Altoft nearly capsized. Saul howeve had other ideas and after a great offwind set he passed the Allens who’d caught Riddington but couldn’t pass. With 2 minutes to go Rickwood was favourite but Saul went into overdrive and with just 10 second left he shot past to win. Rickwood/Ingles were still pleased with second while Steavenson took Cooke/Cox and Erskine in the last minute for third. Trevor Jefferson followed them in 6th and a very close finish for 7th was just edged by Altoft from Parry, Craggs and Erica and Ian Caswell in their Laser3000.

With both races to count, Steavenson Int 14 was the winner followed by Saul, the Allen brothers had passed several in the final minutes to get third overall just in front of Riddington. Trevor Jefferson was first singlehander in 5th and Altoft 6th. One of the most noteworthy performances was 17 year old Joe Erskine who was 8th in a Laser. Yet again the ‘Equaliser’ format has proved itself with the entire fleet very close at the finish and huge place changing possible in the last few minutes.