405s at the Grafham Water Sailing Club Asymmetric Shootout

405 action at the Grafham Shoot-out © Dylan Fletcher

405 action at the Grafham Shoot-out © Dylan Fletcher

7 405's turned out for the Grafham Asymmetric Shoot out joining 24 other boats in the slower fleet. Note that the slower fleet is called the fast fleet and the fast fleet is called the super fast fleet because asymmetric boats do not like being called slow!

Saturday was a bright dry day with the wind North easterly across the course in the central area of Grafham water in front of the clubhouse.

Race one produced two contests, Dylan Fletcher and Nick Hollis contested the lead with Huw Humpries and Max Todd (the Welsh Boys) whilst William Twemlow and Andrew Bath contested third place with Sophie White and Sophie Tuckwood (team Sophie). Dylan was first and William capsized to allow team Sophie to claim third place.

In race two the Welsh Boys led at the first mark but capsized to allow Dylan to take the lead, team Sophie was second, Will and Andy third and the Welsh Boys recovered to fourth.

Race three was led by Dylan and Nick from start to finish, he was followed by the Welsh Boys, team Sophie and Will. Again the Welsh Boys capsized to allow both the Sophies, Will and Andy through.

Sunday dawned still and foggy with no wind at all. The racing was postponed for an hour and a half until a shifty force two filled in from the eastern side of the water.

Race 4 was again led from start to finish by Dylan and Nick. In this race the battle for second third and fourth was hotting up. Will and Andy, the welsh boys and Ed Eaton and James Foskett were all close together coming into the final run. As the wind was light Will and Andy had the weight advantage and started pulling away. When the three boats reached the Gybing point a laser 2000 cut across behind will and Andy to cause trouble for both the other boats. Final results were Dylan and Nick fist, Will and Andy second, The welsh boys third and Ed and James fourth.

For race 5 the wind was starting to die down. This would probably favour Will and Andy. At the start the welsh boys were over the line and were disqualified due to the black flag rule.There was a tough battle for the rest of the positions throughout the race. Will and Andy caught a shift up the last beat and cruised int first.. At the last mark they were still just in first in front of Dylan and Nick. As they went round the bouy they went the wrong way alowing Dylan to slip past. Dylan and Nick first, Will and Andy second, Ed and James Third and team sophie fourth.

405 results are shown below. Overall in the fleet of 31 boats Dylan and Nick finished a creditable 5th. Former 405 sailors now in the 29er fleet finished at the top of the float, Jenny Gammon and Penny Jeffcoat were 3rd, Dan Vernon and Chris Duffin 4th and the now semi – retired Rosie White and Tom Peel were 6th after winning race 5.