For those who have never sailed at Sutton Bingham Sailing Club in Somerset, the reservoir is shaped like a capital T, this can give some excellent beats with the right wind direction, however on Sunday 26th April for the annual Phantom Open Meeting the wind was from the South East, thus making life very difficult for the race officer David Thomson and likewise the boats that attended.
Visitors came from Wimbleball, Cotswold, Plymouth, Castle Cove and Bowmoor to join the home fleet, with a turnout of 17 boats.
After a short delay allowing the wind to settle and a few marks to be moved, the fleet got away in a force 1-2, on a shortish beat to the first mark. Roger Battersby was first round, a lead he held for the first lap until caught by Ian Jay, Gavin Young and Simon Hawkes, the racing was close with at one stage all 4 boat were side by side on the run. However Roger crept away again to hold a comfortable lead at the finish from Gavin, Ian and Simon.
Following lunch race 2 was started on a new course with slightly more wind, this turned out to be a close battle between Simon and Gavin for the lead and Roger and Ian for 3rd and 4th place, eventually Simon won from Gavin with Ian 3rd and Roger 4th. Tom Abbott, Pete Barnstable, Chris Bottomley in his new boat and Paul Kerley fought over the next 4 places.
Starting the final race any one of 4 boats could still win and at the start Simon was over the line and had to return, Ian was blocked in and so Roger and Gavin got away best from the middle of the line. Roger led for most of the first lap but was passed by Gavin on the second beat. Simon, showing good speed downwind to recover from his start then went into second but couldn’t catch Gavin who went on to win from Simon 2nd, Roger 3rd and Chris Bottomley 4th having finally found the speed in his new boat, launched that morning.
Rank Sail No Helm Club R 1 R 2 R 3 Net
1 1283 Gavin Young Cotswold SC 2 2 1 3
2 1218 Simon Hawkes Wimbleball SC 4 1 2 3
3 1210 Roger Battersby SBSC 1 4 3 4
4 1194 Ian Jay SBSC 3 3 5 6
5 1226 Tom Abbott SBSC 7 5 6 11
6 1160 Pete Barnstable Castle Cove SC 5 6 7 11
7 1348 Chris Bottomley SBSC 8 8 4 12
8 1289 Paul Kerley Castle Cove SC 6 7 8 13
9 1270 John Bower Royal Plymouth 9 9 9 18
10 1248 Nigel Leveridge SBSC 12 10 10 20
11 1114 Simon Chapman Chew Valley Lake 10 11 11 21
12 1271 Gordon Keyworth Wimbleball SC 11 12 12 23
13 1189 Simon Hare Oxford SC 16 13 13 26
14 1105 Steve Joyce SBSC 13 14 DNF 27
15 1129 Phil Bailey SBSC 15 15 14 29
16 877 James Nicholls Cotswold SC 14 16 15 29
17 974 Nick Hendry SBSC 17 DNF DNC 35
