Irish & Gotrel win again at Weymouth

RS 800s at Fat Face RS Racing event at Weymouth & Portland on 2 - 3 July 2005

Thirty seven crews ventured to the recently opened Weymouth and Portland sailing academy last weekend for a Fat Face RS Racing Circuit event and were impressed by the new facilities. Many competitors commented however, on the disappointing design of the �club house� and felt that an opportunity to provide a �state of the art� facility had been missed.

Not withstanding this observation, the race management of the event was excellent, including good start lines and well set windward/leeward courses. The wind was predominately in the west, backing to south-west on Sunday afternoon.

An overcast Saturday morning gave way to a bright afternoon, during which races one to three were dominated by Steve Irish/Martin Gotrel in Magic Marine, who having rounded the first windward mark just behind Chris Haworth and Stuart Aston, in a gently increasing 9 knot breeze, took the lead and never looked back. Haworth/Aston finished second with the improved form of Spod and Jane Olive in Harken/Sola bringing them through the fleet, after an indifferent first beat, to finish third. The second and third races where sailed in 12-15 knots with the first two finishing positions remaining the same in all three races. Despite few passing lanes being evident, especially up wind, with the right hand side of the beat generally �paying� all day, there was close racing for third to 12th positions with much place changing amongst the Olives, Paddy Gamble/Fiona Lockwood, Andy Jeffries/Alyson Ody, David & Fiona Sayce and others.

For race four a glorious sunny Sunday dawned, with winds of around 15 knots. The race was again taken by Irish/Gotrel, although it was a close racing for second to fifth places, with the newly arrived Ben and Jenny Vines taking second, Haworth relegated to third but with David & Fiona Sayce, Ben Schooling & Tim Hirst, and Justin Deal all in the �hunt�.

In race five, Irish and Haworth were both OCS, and a close race saw Olive steal the race from Jeffries on the last run with Andy Cornah and Owin Murray recording their best result of the weekend to finish third. In race six the Irish/Gotrel �luck� finally deserted them and they finished second, allowing Haworth to win with Gamble and Lockwood third, Batchella & Hayward fourth, and the Olives fifth.

Although Irish and Haworth seemed destined to finish first and second from the outset, several new teams emerged in the top 15 with very close racing, many place changes and improved performances and consistency from several teams boding well for future events.

Overall Results: 1st Irish/Gotrel (6 pts), 2nd Haworth/Aston (10 pts), 3rd Olives (22 pts), 4th Gamble/Lockwood (24 pts), 5th Sayces (31 pts), 6th Fitzjohn�Sykes/Allin (41 pts).