Up River YC hosted it first Phantom open with 17 entries, Saturday dawned with no wind and fog, but once cleared the wind slowly started to build, and the first race got underway, James Jarvey relished in the light conditions and mastered the art of short tacking against the tide and quickly pulled a comfortable lead over James Case, Rod Thorpe, Chris Roberts , Marcus Ingram and Nick Radley. Positions changed regularly, around the course but Jarvey remained unchallenged despite a late charge from Roberts and Radley, The race ended up Jarvey, Roberts, Radley,
Race two started after a general recall and local sailor Ingram got a clean start and managed to clear of the chasing pack, Ingram rounded windward mark first, there much tussling on the downwind leg between most of the fleet for second place which allowed Ingram to pull away and led comfortably at the leward mark from Roberts and Thorpe. The fleet then sailed to ditch which turned out to be one of those life experiences that every serious sailor should have to do at least once. Many of the Phantomers where quite disturbed by the prospect of sailing up fenn creek which in places is no more than 20 feet wide. Ingram used his local knowledge to good effect and led till the end followed home by Roberts and Thorpe.
The evenings entertainment was barrel of Jaded and a race night, with all becoming tanked up, the night saw Simon Childs become best Phantom racehorse, which led to Simon Fielding and Jez Taylor, winning the bidding to become his owner for the feature race. Out of the six feature race ’horses’ the Phantomers owned four of them. Needless the phantom sailor owners lost the feature race. which was won by Luke Lazell who had dislocated his shoulder earlier in the week. Slightly lighter in the pocket the barrel which polished off with ease and a good night was had by all.
Sunday dawned and we were greeted with a brisk wind, and Race three got under way, Ingram grabbed line honours but immediately chose wrong side of the river proving local knowledge doesn’t always pay, Case and Radley pilled clear in the increasing wind conditions leaving the rest of the fleet to fight it out, much place changing happened around the extra long race which saw two equipment failures Taylor (kicker), and Daren Pike (gooseneck). At the end Case won from Radley, Alan Husk got the better on Nick Thorp after a close battle.
Race four got under way with a action packed start which saw Ingram going for a dip, Radley and Case got clear again relishing the windy conditions, and gradually pulled clear of the chasing pack, two laps were completed, with much place changing throughout the fleet. Case won from Radley with Douglas Conway storming round in third.
Overall results,
1st, Nick Radley, Stone sc
2nd, James Case, Wells sc
3rd, James Jarvey, Hickling sc
4th Marcus Ingram, Up Rive yc
5th Chris Roberts, Creeksea sc
6th Rod Thorpe, Creeksea sc
I would like to express my thanks to all at Up River YC and all who attended the event, it was a fantastic weekend, Full results can be found on the phantom forum, Next Eastern event is at Hunts SC on April 17th.
