Results / GUL GP HISC - 25/06/2011

Competitors arrived to an overcast and windy morning on Saturday. The high winds combined with a rough sea led to an hour delay to the start. Though the sky gradually cleared leaving a glorious windy and wavy day sailing in Hayling bay.

Ian and Matt got a clean start from the port end and headed left up the beat, to lead round the windward mark. The front four boats then broke away slightly from the main pack with quite a bit of place changing between Rob and JC, Justin and Ollie, and Laurie and Dan. Justin and Ollie had a good last beat to squeeze ahead of Ian and Matt to take the first bullet of the day.

In the second race the race officer reduced the course to 2 laps, which left little room for catching up after a poor start. Andy and Allyson led early on and held the lead to the finish, managing to hold off Justin and Ollie. With a gap to the remaining pack Laurie and Dan held onto third, followed closely by Rob and JC. 

In the third race with the wind dying, some teams were left with an over-depowered rig struggling to get through the still rough sea. Justin and Ollie continued to have the form of the day taking, winning the last race. Rob and JC took second, with relative newcomers to the class Dan and George showing potential in third. Nick and Chris showing consistency with a fourth.

With the sun now shining everyone topped off a great day with drinks on the balcony looking out across Chichester harbour. And as one led to another, it wasn’t long before some took to the dance floor for some after sailing stretches.

On Sunday morning having been promised the hottest day of the year, we awoke in some surprise to thick sea fog. The visibility was even worse in the bay, which led to a number of postponements and the eventual cancellation of the racing for the day. This left over night leaders Justin and Ollie taking the top spot, a well deserved win from some good sailing on Saturday.

The decision to cancel racing was a tough one and left some sailors frustrated as the fog then quickly cleared and some headed out for a sail in the afternoon. Decisions such as this must always err on the side of caution and we cannot expect volunteers to take a decision where they believe it puts competitors at risk. We also quickly heard stories of people sailing back from round the island with only a few boat lengths visibility, which would have been a nightmare for rescue with 80+ boats in the event. Luckily for us all thick sea fog is a rare occurrence.