Phantom Eastern Series Round 8 at Snettisham Beach Sailing Club 6th Aug 2011
The JJ Boats/Tempera Tech Eastern Series made its first pilgrimage to the North West (Norfolk that is, not upt North) for round 8 of its highly competitive and well attended Eastern Series. It was the first time “Snet” Beach had held a Phantom Open, and racing was held in conjunction with the final day of North Norfolk Week. Thus weekend visitors bolstered the number of Phantoms that had already competed in the handicap fleet at the multi venues the competitors had enjoyed.
A lovely south westerly breeze filled in as the Wash filled up and we all launched for the two scheduled races.
Race 1 was a combined start with the fast handicap fleet, adding a different dimension to our normal fleet racing. Quick out the blocks was a foxy Chris Roberts with Ben Falat and Daren Pike as the chasing hounds. Chris took the win, and Ben cleverly stuffed Daren into a fleet of holidaying Enterprises to hold his second place to the line. The blue sail debacle also benefitted Windy Miller who grabbed 4th from “Little Monster” Ian Sullivan.
For Race 2 the PRO set a course closer to Norfolk and as the tide had turned so had the tables.
Despite a poor start Daren Pike found the middle of the course paid and rounded the top mark with foxy Roberts. Unfortunately, not listening at the briefing, meant they went off to sail a different course and when they decided to rejoin the fleet did so rather down the order. “Little Monster” benefitted the most and smiled all the way to the line for a memorable first Open meeting race win with Ben again second from Windy.
Sunday unfortunately mustered up the predicted force 7 winds so once the tents had been recovered from the nature reserve the decision to declare the results was made, with Ben taking the win. A big thank you to the race management team and to the sailing club hosts. We are all already looking forward to sailing again where Norfolk stares at Lincolnshire.
Snettisham Beach Phantom Open
Overall
Sailed: 2, Discards: 0, To count: 2, Entries: 9, Scoring system: Appendix A
Rank Fleet Boat Class SailNo Club HelmName CrewName Rating R1 R2 Total Nett
1st 1359 Ben Falat 2.0 2.0 4.0 4.0
2nd 1395 Chris Roberts 1.0 4.0 5.0 5.0
3rd 1344 Ian Sullivan 5.0 1.0 6.0 6.0
4th 1305 Ian Miller 4.0 3.0 7.0 7.0
5th 1183 Daren Pike 3.0 5.0 8.0 8.0