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Optimum Time Watches Southern Phantom travellers Series Round 10 at Burghfield Sailing Club on the Saturday 11th November
Saturday 11 November marks the last event in the 2017 Phantom Southern Series, hosted by Burghfield Sailing Club.
There’s still much to be decided in the series, with even series leader Nick Orman not being safe, should Chris Shelton make the long trip across country or Paul Birbeck score a top finish.
Last year’s champ, Ivan Walsh, is presently third but he could also come under threat for the last berth on the rostrum by a number of competitors, including his very own club mate, Steve Popple – Who will get the bragging rights.
The first race will start at 10.30, with a briefing set for 9.45. Further information can be found on the Burghfield website, including the ability to register early and enjoy a reduced entry price.
Optimum Time Watches Phantom Southern Travellers at Bowmoor Sailing Club
Fifteen boats attended the Phantom Open at Bowmoor SC on the 14th October, 10 visitors and 5 from Bowmoor. It was an overcast day with winds oscillating between 5 and 10 mph with plenty of direction changes.
All 3 races got away first time and in Race 1, Olly Hopkins (Bowmoor) was first to the windward mark followed by Jim Hopton (Shustoke) and Dean Griffiths (Bowmoor). It was a close tussle at the front but Jim dropped back when he infringed at the windward mark and had to do a 720. Mike Tustin (Bowmoor) then established a clear lead with Dean and Olly battling for second place. On the last lap Dean went high and was passed by Tom Whittingham (Bowmoor) and Pete Barnstable (Sutton Bingham) who both got a nice gust while Dean was in a wind free area. For Race 2 Nick Orman (Castle Cove) got an excellent Start on the pin end and was first to the windward mark followed by Leigh Riddell (Broadwater SC) and Jim Hopton. Jim went into the lead and stayed there until the end followed by Nick and Mike Tustin.
Massive congratulations to Chris Roberts of Creeksea Sailing Club, who has clinched this years Eastern Series. Final results can be found below and full results for the complete series can be found here http://www.phantomclass.org.uk/events/eastern-results
Overall Eastern Results 2017
Sailed: 6, Discards: 2, To count: 4, Entries: 47, Scoring system: Appendix A
Optimum Time Watches Southern Phantom Series Round 9 at Bowmoor Sailing Club on the Saturday 14th October
Bowmoor Sailing Club welcomes all Phantom sailors to join 6 home helms to the Phantom Open Meeting on the 14th October. A rumour that a couple of superstars could be attending too. If new to the Phantom come along, not better place to learn than an open meeting from helpful helms... There will be close racing across the lake during the day and the galley will be open for lunch and drinks. Frist race will not start before 10.30 and notice of race will be posted on club website www.bowmoor.co.uk
Phantom National Championships 2017 - Highcliffe Sailing Club
Another windy Nationals is now over, congratulations once again to Andy Couch. During the weekend we had some excellent media coverage, here is a round up of the weekend
Held over the Bank Holiday weekend and forming a part of the 125th Burnham Week Regatta the event attracted a competitive fleet of 12 boats eager to hone their skills prior to the National Championships at Highcliffe in two weeks time.
The weather looked unusually benign for Burnham Week which is more commonly associated with arduous courses raced over in 20+ knot winds.
In fact Saturday dawned bright and calm - so calm that the river was mirror flat- with only an occasional zephyr to be seen. With a flooding tide an immediate postponement was no surprise and the fleet resorted to their favourite activity with tape measures and rig tension gauges to perfect and record settings.
As the morning passed it became obvious that racing was going to be unlikely if not and the fleet accordingly requested the Race Officer to abandon any racing for the day.
Sunday morning was slightly overcast but still warm and another delayed start seemed likely as was indeed the case. The sea breeze did however develop and racing was on.
The starts for all fleets were expertly run by Edwin Buckley and his team from their committee boat moored off Pile House with start lines to either side for the dinghy and day boat fleets.
The course was the usual epic associated with this event with no less than two legs up and down the River Roach and a further final downriver beat against the tide to Holliwell.
The fleet started in close company on the short start line and short tacked up the north bank to find Greenward for the first leg across the river into the River Roach. Wayling had pulled ahead of the fleet whilst the following group of Roberts, Miller, Orman and Portway battled it out.
Optimum Time Watches Phantom Southern Travellers race report round 6 at the 2017 Weymouth Dinghy Regatta By Mike Tustin
Sixteen Phantom sailors made the effort to travel down to Dorset to sample Olympic sailing waters for the two day Weymouth Dinghy regatta which started on Saturday 8 July. With mainstream weather forecasters and windguru predicting very light winds all were pleasantly surprised with the gentle breeze along with the presence of the big yellow ball nice and high in the sky. Almost perfect sailing conditions. With 120 other dinghies in attendance and using a common start/finish line we were all very pleased to find that we were sharing a start line with a good group of Oks for the first race at 1.00pm.
With a very busy line and missing James Dawson who eventually turned up late for the second race we set off. Very quickly and with very long legs in what turned out to be a windward leeward course Nick Orman and John Wayling sailed ahead to a slightly unexpected (in my boat anyway) finish at the committee boat after only 2 and ½ legs.
With the wind dropping slowly race two started in a very similar manner with Nick almost doing a horizon job on the rest of the fleet. As per the last race we all approached the finish line to find that this time we were sailing onto the windward mark once again. This did cause a little confusion in a few boats and several places were exchanged at this point and on the final approach to the windward mark.
The last race of the afternoon in even less but still a respectable breeze found Nick Orman heading right in towards Castle cove. Others found this to be hard race as loose floating weed seemed to have become quite a factor in this part of the harbour. However Nick Orman once again won the day followed by Will Gulliver and John Wayling.
9 phantoms attended the RWYC open, 7 travelling and 2 home boats made up the fleet. The forecast was decent and although a bit cloudy, a nice south westerly was blowing. The decision was made to sail in the south basin, meaning a 20 minute sail to the start line. The RO set a long beat, and the start line was nice and square resulting in a nice clean getaway. Although everyone picked different routes up the long beat at the windward mark at least 5 or 6 phantoms were very close, it was nip and tuck from there on with some swapping of places on the downwind legs. Phil Worth had a great second beat and pulled into a small lead, being closely followed by Adam Perry and Martin Knott. Phil held on for the win , with Martin pipping Adam on the line. Not far behind was Matt Nield and Richard Sims. A great race with some close racing throughout, and by Windermere’s standards a nice steady wind. The fleet sailed back in for lunch. After lunch the phantoms were joined by club boats of flying fifteens and dinghies for back to back races , unfortunately before the start Joe Bibby realised there was a large crack in his cst mast, so that was the end of his day, fortunately he has another mast, so shouldn't be off the water for too long.
