P+B Phantom Inland Championships

5TH/6TH June - Northampton Sailing Club

As the first weekend in June loomed, Phantom sailors from around the country were eagerly viewing their wind apps in the hope that the wind gods were aware it was the long awaited P+B Phantom Inland Championships.

Summer had arrived and along with it, high pressure and light winds !
This didn’t deter the 40 online entries heading to Northampton Sailing Club with it’s 420 acres set in the beautiful countryside of Northamptonshire.

The fleet were keen to get together, to meet up with old friends and new. A handful arrived early on Thursday afternoon for the long weekend event, participating the club evening racing.

Friday was a planned training day as a pre-curser to the main event.  John ‘Titch’ Wayling supported by Simon Hawkes and Mike Webster delivered some onshore boat tuning, exchanging ideas on rig and boat set up. This was followed by on the water coaching for the fifteen Phantoms, the light winds providing perfect conditions for practice roll tacking and gybing and finishing off with numerous short line, windward/leeward races. The debriefing session watching the go pro footage over a glass or two of the local Timothy Taylors brew was always going to be a success !

Saturday morning saw many more Phantom arrive for the midday start and thankfully the light wind forecast for the weekend didn’t deter most.  The Race Officer - Neil Barford briefed the competitors, advising  a postponement until the much anticipated  5-7 mph westerly arrived in the early afternoon. Due to the Sunday forecast looking even lighter, it was decided go try and race four out of the planned six race event  on the Saturday.

Race 1 saw Mike Webster round the windward mark first, but was soon passed by Rob Starling who led the fleet around the trapezoid course. The difficult condition of small pressure bands and dead patches made life difficult for the sailors but Rob Cook closed ranks on the leader and managed to squeeze past on the last short beat to the finish line. Rob Starling smarting in second with Chris Shelton and Miles Odel in third and four respectively.

Race 2 commenced after a quick turnaround with the leading boats sniffing out the light pressure patches ahead of the rest of the pack. The downwind legs being particularly nervy when the fleet bunched together, desperately trying to avoid the killer holes in the wind. Simon Hawkes took the lead from Mike Webster only to have a brain freeze heading to the wrong mark on the last lap, gifting Mike Webster the bullet, Simon Hawkes a frustrated second and Benveluto Fallet taking third, with John ‘Titch’ Wayling in forth.

Race 3 commenced in the same light and shifty conditions proving difficult for some to get the much sought after consistency. Clear starts and finding pressure were the key ingredients to success.
Rob Starling again made his presence know at the front end of the fleet with lots of movement and exchange of places, Rob Starling this time converting a first place closely followed by Charlie Chandler and Martin Watts with Simon Hawkes again punching into the top four.

Race 4, the final race of the day made the most of the fading pressure.  A discard now in play changed to potential leader board and consistency was still the critical factor in who would come out on top after day one and the thought in everyone’s mind that there might not be a day two ! The fleet eager to get started were too keen for the Race Officer, who deemed a General Recall. The fleet got away the second time with only one casualty of the ‘U’ flag. Despite the continuing light and shifty wind, some familiar faces were at the front again proving it wasn’t all luck picking out those patchy shifts of pressure.
For the first time in the day the Race officer decided for three laps, which added pain to the sailors already aching knees. Simon Hawkes again dominated taking the winning gun followed by Rob Cook in second, with Richard Sims and Jim Hopton picking up third and forth.

Sunday dawned with the lake looking like a mirror, with occasional breeze filling in from all directions. A short postponement was made but it was inevitable
there would be no prospect of acing. The abandoned flag was duly hoisted drawing a close to the event. 

Congratulations to Simon Hawkes who became the 2021 Inland Champion following a set of remarkably consistent results, never being out of the top five in difficult conditions……..  He clearly knew what he was talking about in the Friday coaching sessions  !!   

Thanks were given to Northampton Sailing Club for hosting the event and to Pinnell and Bax  for kindly sponsoring the championships and providing great prizes.

Mike Webster

NSC - 2021- Phantom Open - 5 - 6th June

Northampton Sailing Club

Results are final as of 14:07 on June 6, 2021

Overall

Sailed: 4, Discards: 1, To count: 3, Rating system: PY, Entries: 34, Scoring system: Phantoms NSC 2021 scoring system

Rank

SailNo

HelmName

Club

RS1
5/6/21

RS2
5/6/21

RS3
5/6/21

RS4
5/6/21

RS5
 

RS6
 

Nett

1st

1472

Simon Hawkes

Castle Cove

(5.0)

2.0

4.0

1.0

 

 

7.0

2nd

1485

Rob Cook

Northampton

1.0

7.0

(15.0)

2.0

 

 

10.0

3rd

1431

Rob Starling

Burghfield

2.0

8.0

1.0

(28.0 DNS)

 

 

11.0

4th

1385

John Wayling

Northampton

6.0

4.0

(7.0)

6.0

 

 

16.0

5th

1447

Richard Sims

Carsington

9.0

(13.0)

6.0

3.0

 

 

18.0

6th

1439

Miles Odell

Northampton

4.0

5.0

9.0

(13.0)

 

 

18.0

7th

1440

Mike Webster

Northampton

8.0

1.0

11.0

(35.0 OCS)

 

 

20.0

8th

1270

Charlie Chandler

Bowmoor

7.0

(17.0)

2.0

11.0

 

 

20.0

9th

1266

Benvenuto Falat

Waveney Oulton Broad YC

12.0

3.0

5.0

(15.0)

 

 

20.0

10th

1473

Chris Shelton

Downs

3.0

10.0

(12.0)

9.0

 

 

22.0

11th

1391

Nigel King

Lymington Town

11.0

(16.0)

8.0

5.0

 

 

24.0

12th

1481

Martin Watts

Netley

(20.0)

9.0

3.0

18.0

 

 

30.0

13th

1400

Jim Hopton

Shustroke

10.0

(20.0)

16.0

4.0

 

 

30.0

14th

1356

Steve Ward

Bartlety

16.0

6.0

(21.0)

8.0

 

 

30.0

15th

1337

Richard Nurse

Northampton

13.0

(21.0)

17.0

12.0

 

 

42.0

16th

1139

Matthew Pritchard

Burton

22.0

(27.0)

18.0

7.0

 

 

47.0

17th

1419

Andy Weatherspoon

DRSC

14.0

19.0

(22.0)

16.0

 

 

49.0

18th

1269

Andrew Hunt

WOBYC

19.0

(32.0 DNS)

13.0

19.0

 

 

51.0

19th

1273

Bill Taylor

Creeksea

17.0

(24.0)

14.0

21.0

 

 

52.0

20th

1318

Dave Patrick

Broadwater

18.0

25.0

10.0

(26.0)

 

 

53.0

21st

1394

Nick Favell

WOBYC GYGSC

(28.0)

11.0

19.0

24.0

 

 

54.0

22nd

1484

Paul Birbeck

Wimbleball

15.0

12.0

(32.0 DNS)

28.0 DNS

 

 

55.0

23rd

1297

Nick Crickmore

WOBYC

23.0

18.0

(26.0)

14.0

 

 

55.0

24th

1461

Graham Dale-Jones

Creeksea

(32.0)

26.0

24.0

10.0

 

 

60.0

25th

1369

Duncan Syme

Great Moor

21.0

22.0

(25.0)

17.0

 

 

60.0

26th

1364

Tony Cook

Downs

26.0

14.0

23.0

(28.0 DNS)

 

 

63.0

27th

1443

Phil Longley

Stone

(30.0)

15.0

20.0

28.0 DNS

 

 

63.0

28th

1414

Dave Smith

Hollingworth Lake

24.0

23.0

(35.0 OCS)

23.0

 

 

70.0

29th

1309

Mike Stone

Stone

25.0

31.0

(35.0 OCS)

20.0

 

 

76.0

30th

1178

To Gissane

TBD

(31.0)

28.0

27.0

22.0

 

 

77.0

31st

1208

Simon Lennane

Llandegfedd

(29.0)

29.0

28.0

25.0

 

 

82.0

32nd

1467

Norman Byrd

Draycote

27.0

(32.0 DNS)

32.0 DNS

28.0 DNS

 

 

87.0

33rd

1224

Yossi Galillo

SWSC

(33.0)

32.0 DNS

29.0

28.0 DNS

 

 

89.0

34th

1457

Simon Wigmore

Grafham

(34.0)

30.0

32.0 DNS

28.0 DNS

 

 

90.0