Fourteen eager Phantom sailors took part in the second event in the Phantom Class Eastern Series event at Fishers Green Sailing Club in the scenic Lea Valley.
The wind gods had come up trumps with a gusty North Westerly that carried punch at times but also faded away at critical points. The locals told visitors that the wind direction was unusual and most were secretly glad that the “home advantage” seemed to have been neutralised.
This seemed to be the case in Race 1 when Ian Stone from Maidenhead aced the start with a port tack flyer from the committee boat end leaving the fleet wondering why everyone else hadn’t tried the tactic.
Ian looked set to win the first race by a significant margin having been placed under pressure from time to time by Chris Roberts, Ben Falet and Chris Biglin, all of whom fell back at some point due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Having shown mastery of the conditions for almost three laps it was with surprise that Ian headed off for the wrong mark on the final lap, leaving the race wide open again for the following pack who realised his error. The win went to Jim Hopton, one of three sailors from Shustoke taking a sabbatical in the East, with clubmate Chris Biglin grabbing second place ahead of Roberts.
Read more: Eastern Series open at Fisher Green Sailing Club Saturday 6th May
Optimum Time Watches Phantom Southern Travellers race report and results for Round 4 at Lee on Solent SC 6th and 7th of May 2017 by Jon Cooper
The Southern fleet headed to Lee on Solent for the 4th open in the SW traveller series.
On Saturday Simon Hawkes ran some excellent training for half a dozen of us, he was given a high tech video camera off Gordon which captured some good videos of us all sailing, and also some fantastic shots of him “air humping” when the camera was put down and left on by mistake! All of the trainees benefited from the on the water coaching, some real improvements were made by all.
Sunday – Race Day!
We were greeted with Bacon butties, no waves and fickle wind. A good turnout of boats made for an exciting day ahead.
After a short briefing everyone rigged and headed out for 4 back to back races.
Race 1
The first race of the day started with multiple premature starters, everyone was quickly brought back via a general recall.
On the second start those that started at the lower end of the line had a good advantage, they were in the favorable tide and closer to the first mark!
The fleet headed out to the wing mark on a very broad reach. Jon Cooper, Mike Tustin and Rob Starling appeared to be in a good position, but the tide proved to be a cruel beast with Jon being pushed into the wing mark (Mike and Rob managed to squeeze round). Nick (Slow) Orman and Ben Falat’s experience showed with the pair of them leaving adequate space for tidal movement!
Nick and Ben tussled all the way round, but Nick came out on top in the end (this was the theme for the rest of the day). For others in the fleet the shifty wind and tide made for a difficult race with positions changing all the time.
Read more: Optimum Time Watches Phantom Southern Travellers race report and results for Round 4 at Lee on...