Classic Chase conditions welcomes sailors to the first event on the new Phantom midland circuit.
Chase Sailing club held it's first ever Phantom open meeting on Saturday. 23 Boats turned up to be greeted with a nice force 3-4 blowing from the north east. Race OOD John Froggott set a short beat across the pool followed by two long tight reaches down then back up the lake. This allowed the front runners including Andy Couch, Will Gulliver and Simon Hawkes to gain a significant lead after the first lap. Spectators were witness to a display of awesome downwind sailing by Andy Couch to allow him to win by a considerable distance. Behind him Simon and Will had there own fight to the finish with Will eventually second and Simon third. All the sailors came off the water for lunch and talk of making the second race less than an hour in length.
The wind increased just slightly after lunch and with blue skies and sunshine the second race got underway after a clean start. Predictably Andy Couch managed to pick the correct way up the first beat after tacking early onto port from the committee boat end to round first. Will Gulliver managed to find a path up the beat after starting at the pin end to round second. Again the leading boats managed to pull away down the reaches to allow Andy Couch to finish first with Will Gulliver Second and Simon Hawkes third.
The last race became a decider for second and third place, Andy having already done enough to win decided not to sail. This left Will Gulliver to lead the race from start to finish with Simon Coward sailing a suburb race to finish second and Alex Morrison chasing hard to finish third.
Results
1st Andy Couch Blithfield
2nd Will Gulliver Northampton
3rd Simon Coward Northampton
4th Simon Hawkes Wimbleball
5th Alex Morrison Port Dinorwic
6th Paul Lester Chase
7th Mike Webb Delph
8th Philip Worth Delph
9th Jeremy Shinton Bartley
10th Pete Gough Draycote
11th Mark Weston West Riding
12th Richard Sims Carsington
13th Neil Boneham Bartley
14th Peter White Blithfield
15th Eddie Brookes Elton
16th Andy Costa Bartley
17th Adam Froggatt Chase
18th John Reay Blithfield
19th Pete Isherwood Chase
20th Mike Potter Blithfield
21st Steve Turner Chase
22nd Andy Griffin Nottingham
23rd Chris Allsopp Chase