Fridays poor weather didn’t deter the 12 phantom sailors that descended on Stewartby Water SC near Bedford for their inaugural Sprint Cup.

Saturday was the first time that the phantoms sailed under the short course windward leeward format where courses each have a duration of 20 minutes. The race officer team of Nigel and Fiona Denchfield did a great job getting 9 races in on the first day in light and shifty conditions with minimal delay. Sunday was to have two longer traditional round the cans racing both of which had to count for the series.

The first days racing was tight throughout the fleet with positions changing on almost every leg rewarding good starts and clean mark roundings.

Overnight there were three groups with Simon Childs narrowly leading Andrew Wilde who were having a titanic battle with James Jarvey and Andrew Gregory not far behind. Indeed the latter would have been a lot closer had he not capsized when his toe strap broke and he had spent more time reading and practising John Cassidy’s “Book of Knots”…..

The next group included James Scrimshaw, Matthew House, Ian Sullivan and John Wayling who were split by only 10 points and therefore all battling it out to avoid the dreaded 5th place that came with the prize of writing this report. With both of the long Sunday races to count there was much banter during the evenings curry and ‘sprint pool’ competition about who would retire from the last race to avoid having to use their keyboard.

The final four places were even tighter with Martin Jenkins, Simon Hare, Ian Howard and Mark Norman (with the only classic) being split by a mere five points.

The fleet awoke on Sunday to find a fresh breeze and an extra competitor as Richard Simms joined in for the final two races. Simon and Andrew continued their battle with the former winning by just two points with James Jarvey securing third place.

Ian Sullivans’s third place in the first race took him to 5th place spot and a poor start in the last race saw him celebrate round the first lap only to see him pick up a shift on the next beat, and a couple of capsizes infront of him to secure a night of reflection on a great competitive weekend with the fleet going home keen to keep the event in the calendar for next year.