405s at the John Merricks Tiger Trophy

8 boats turned up for the first ranking event of the season, the Tiger Trophy. It was great to see some new 405s along with Chris and Jack Blake who we haven’t seen since the nationals. We were greeted with a fresh breeze early Saturday morning and sunshine but freezing cold.

Everyone set out ready for the 3 races ahead. As we were in the slow handicap it was quite a struggle to find a good place on the start, with almost 50 slightly faster 420s all trying to get to the same place at the right time.

The first race was started in a force 3 with a few stronger gusts. When the starting gun went Dylan and Nick were just ahead of everyone else by a couple of boat lengths, with Sophie and Pippa looking as if they would overtake on the next tack. Then Dylan and Nick got a gust and were just ahead by the windward mark. It was very tight on the next reach with Dylan and Nick just managing to hold onto their lead. After this the race was over with Dylan and Nick pulling away from the rest of the fleet.

In the second race the wind had picked up and the start line was port end bias. The entire slow handicap fleet were on the starboard end of the line, with one lonely 405 sailed by Dylan and Nick on the opposite end. When the starting gun went they managed to cross nearly the whole fleet apart from a couple of 420s, giving them a lead which was made bigger throughout the entire race resulting in another win.

The wind was dying for the 3 and last race of the day. With everyone else realising that it was port end bias there was now a lot of boats at the port end. This race was very tight and was fought out between Dylan and Nick against Holly and Sophie. They were battling it out through the whole race with only boat lengths between them. But Holly and Sophie kept their lead for a well-deserved victory.

On Sunday it was the very daunting 2-hour pursuit race in force 5 with gusts of 6 (Unfortunately Holly and Sophie couldn’t race because Holly was ill). The 405s were to start 7 minutes after the 2hr-starting gun went. The 420s got a bit mixed up and half of them started on our start. This was very annoying!!!! But this turned out to be a very tight race again as Rosie White and Tom Peel were racing in the 405 instead of the 29er as the day before. Rosie and Tom lead at the windward mark closely followed by Dylan and Nick. The downwind leg was very hairy, as the wind had increased. By the 2nd lap Dylan and Nick had gained a bit upwind, but Rosie and Tom were not giving up at anything. It was close downwind as the biggest gust of the day came through; the boats took off at lightning speed. But then followed a synchronised capsize by both Dylan and Nick and Rosie and Tom! On the last beat upwind Dylan and Nick just managed to get ahead which they kept for the rest of the race.

Well done to everyone that went, it was a very exciting first ranking event of the year!