Hunts Sailing Club – Phantom Open Meeting 17th April

The “Dirty Dozen” Phantom helms that contested the third Tempera-tech / JJ boats sponsored Eastern Series event at Hunts SC were rewarded for their optimism by a very fickle wind.  Bright sunshine, well organised racing by the Solo fleet and super catering were the highlights of the event that otherwise left several helms wondering whether angling might offer more rewards.

The first race was started with a fair amount of line bias that was soon evened out with an on / off breeze shifting merrily as the fleet neared the windward mark.

Local Hero Richard Parkin was notable mostly for his absence due to an extended stop over in Gibralter, where he was no doubt cursing the Icelandic gods of volcanic activity.  He had however done the decent thing and lent his boat to local Contender sailor Simon Maskell who rounded first, followed by fellow Hunts member Chris Hibbert and Chris Roberts.  Maskell and Roberts pulled ahead of the fleet to fight a battle of nerves and shifts to finish in that order ahead of Andrew Wilde who had travelled down from Carsington to his first Eastern Series event.

The extended lunch break failed to allow a steady breeze to develop and thus the second race saw a re-run of the first with much place changing throughout the fleet.  The sight of becalmed Solutions, increasing temperatures and random patches of breeze meant that blood pressure counts in the Phantom fleet reached danger levels but again the same group of boats contested the lead with Wilde, Jarvey, Maskell and Roberts swapping places throughout the race.  In the end it was Andrew Wilde that took the gun, chased home by Jarvey and Roberts.

The clinching race was started whilst the Solutions were still enjoying themselves at the far end of the lake by creating beautiful reflections and practising sailing backwards.

Wilde made his intentions clear by starting well but yet again the race wasn’t over till the last mark, as the breeze favoured first one side and then the other of the beat/run/reach in no particular order.  The lead was maintained by Wilde to the finish despite Roberts and Jarvey pushing hard throughout the race, with the last run seeing a frantic Wilde watching the following boats close him down rapidly as the breeze filled in from astern.  With just enough of a lead in hand to get round the leeward mark the shorten course signal can never have sounded sweeter.

And so the third event of the Eastern Series was over with Wilde the deserving winner clearly being one to watch for the future and another welcome entrant to this competitive fleet.  The next Eastern Event is at Southwold on 29/30 May and is expected to see a maximum entry for this popular sea venue.

Results

1st Andrew Wilde 1291 Carsington SC

2nd Chris Roberts 1278 Creeksea SC

3rd James Jarvey 1209 Hickling Broad SC

4th Simon Maskell 1354 Hunts SC

5th Chris Hibbert 1233 Hunts SC

2010 Sutton Bingham SC Phantom Open

The 2010 running of the Phantom open at Sutton Bingham resulted in some bizarre events. Before the event even commenced a travelling sailor managed to miss the club turning, decided to turn around in the nearby picnic area and completely missed the low height barrier on the entrance. Unfortunately for him his lovely shiny carbon didn't and ended up in two pieces. On the plus side the lack of any wind whatsoever meant he had time to borrow a tin mast and re-rig his boat.

A similar course was used for the 2^nd race and this time Battersby decided to wait until the start itself to provide the merriment of the other helms by diving head first into the water just as the gun went. It didn't hold him up too much as the wind had died yet again. Jay & Hawkes went left, Wheeler and the majority right. It appeared that Wheeler would get to the windward mark first but the wind swung and filled slightly from the left and Jay got there first. The next leg was nominally a reach but the leaders had to beat to the mark, tacking up to 8 times without really changing the direction of the boat. The next leg again turned in to a beat for some of it before returning to the expected run and Hawkes sailed past Jay to take the lead. At the last mark a wind shift allowed Jay to overtake Hawkes. Within 10 yards of the finish though the wind was dying and the windward boat of Jay slowed allowing the leeward boat to eke out what was left of the wind and the leeward most one of Pete Barnstable took the win with Paul Kerley only a fraction behind. Jay took third. Hawkes ended up in 7^th.

The best wind of the day appeared for the last race and in fact some competitors nearly sat on the side of the boat. Hawkes sailed well and lead from start to finish taking the line honours and the open win with it. Battersby decided now was the time to stop messing around and sailed well battling with Jay & a fast improving Chris Bottomley. Bottomley got confused on the rounding of the leeward mark and tangled with Jay resulting in a 720° penalty turn which relegated him to 5^th. Battersby & Jay continued with Kerley closing them down all of the time. Jay eventually took second despite having to return a missed out mark and Battersby in third. Kerley couldn't quite get there and took forth.

Overall Results

1^st Simon Hawkes Wimbleball SC

2^nd Ian Jay Sutton Bingham SC

3^rd Paul Kerley Castle Cove SC

4^th Pete Barnstable Castle Cove SC

5^th Roger Battersby Sutton Bingham SC

6^th Phil Wheeler Spinnaker SC
7^th Chris Bottomley Sutton Bingham SC

8^th Simon Hare Oxford SC

9^th John Bower Plymouth Corinthian YC

10^th Nigel Leveridge Sutton Bingham SC

11^th Tom Abbott Sutton Bingham SC

12^th Steve Joyce Sutton Bingham SC

13^th Richard Cumberbatch Sutton Bingham SC

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