Results / RS Fat Face Racing Circuit Stokes Bay SC - 24/05/2003

The third round of the 2003 Fat Face Racing Circuit saw 39 RS800�s arriving at Stokes Bay for the event, shared with the 700�s and 300�s. All the sailors looking happy with the sunshine, a westerly wind of 12 knts blowing straight down the Solent, and only a 2 minute sail out to the start area. What a venue! A change of course for the 800�s this weekend with an outer loop on the trapezoid to separate us from the 700�s and 300�s. It was a shame that it wasn�t blowing 25 knts, the long 2 sail reach in the Solent chop would have provided a lot of entertainment! Race 1 got underway with the tide just turned and holding the competitors back from the line. The decision was whether to head inshore out of the tide or get the better pressure out towards the middle of the Solent. Nearly missing race 1 were National Champions Geoff Carveth and Craig Davies after having to borrow a hull and having a few problems getting it to the race area with their rig attached. Theirs is still in for repair after an unfortunate port/starboard incident with a Vauxhall Corsa on the way to the Datchet event in March. They were to be seen sprinting through the dinghy park having just arrived while the rest of us launched� and made the start! At this early stage of the tide it didn�t seem to make much difference which way to go, with Joe Turnbull and Ben Saynor leading around the first mark from Roland Emmans and Babs Day, and in third James Date sailing with Liam Murray in the Sea Sure boat. Liam was already nursing blisters on his office boy hands after a hardcore couple of years being an accountant at �Mazars� and not going dinghy sailing. By the end of the run Date/Murray in Sea Sure had taken the lead from Turnbull/Saynor , with the chasing pack of Steve Irish and Martin Gotrell in Magic Marine, Chris Hawarth and Stuart Aston and Barrie Edgington sailing with Ian Lovering, back from GBR challenge duties, in the RWO boat. Turnbull/Saynor were not giving up and regained the lead twice more before finishing a close second to Date/Murray with Irish/Gotrell in third. Race 2 started in an increasing tide making the dash for the shore more important and it was Nick Peters sailing with Niki Griffin in Fat Face 2 leading from that side. They lead from start to finish with Edgington/Lovering and Hawarth/Aston battling for second, with Mike Lennon and Emma White from Hayling Island leading up the rest of the fleet. The positions remained like this until the last lap when Date/Murray recovered from an awkward first beat to steal third from Hawarth/Aston, leaving Peters/Griffin to take the Race from Edgington/Lovering. Race 3 was lead from the start by the Sea Sure boat, followed round the windward mark by Max Capener and Matt McGovern, still finding their feet in the class after deciding that hiking out in a Laser is a bad idea, and the RWO boat of Edgington/Lovering. Capener/McGovern were pulled out for OCS and received some verbal encouragement that they should perhaps get out of the way from Edgington. Date/Murray pulled away and were never challenged. Carveth/Davies in Fat Face were to pull through to second having settled down after an exciting start to the day, with the ever consistent Hawarth/Aston from BCYC completing their 4,4,3 scoreline for the day to be second overall behind Date/Murray with 1,3,1. Edginton/Lovering were third overall for the day with 5,2,5. Irish Gotrell posted a fourth in the last race of the day to make 3,10,4 the next best set of results. The fleet returned home ready for the carnage that was to be the RS May Ball at the Explosion Museum in Gosport, and pondering the question� Who was that who lead race one most of the way round and then was not seen for the rest of the day? Will they show their lovely LDC rash vests at the front of the fleet again or was this a one off occaision? Only time will tell� Day two dawned with it being quite easy to distinguish between those who had been to the May Ball and those that had been out drinking somewhere else. It was good� apparently. If I could remember anything it would be reported here� I am sure the photos will be posted on Corky�s website www.whatacorker.com in the near future to help jog those memories! It was good of the BBC to get the weather forecast completely wrong again and provide us with Westerly wind straight down the Solent again as oppose to the NW they were predicting. A few more black clouds around made for a bit more breeze and a bit more of a brain teaser on the tactical side. Race 4 started with a port biased line as one of the aforementioned black clouds came through and was lead by the RWO boat of Edgington/Lovering from start to finish. This left Peters/Griffin in Fat Face 2, Irish/Gotrell in Magic Marine, Date/Murray in Sea Sure, and Spod Olive with Mikey Warren in the Sola boat battling out for the remaining places. Edgington/Lovering took the gun from Date/Murray who had pulled through on the downwind legs with Irish/Gotrell keeping a good scoreline in 3rd. Olive/Warren came in 4th. The start of race 5 saw another port biased line and a bit of confusion as to when the start was on the part of the Sea Sure team, who were publicly humiliated in the bar afterwards when the video was shown. The author is convinced that the gun was late, but was blatantly about 6 boat lengths over, on port, with spurs polished when the gun went. Oops. With the start getting underway and the breeze increasing to 18 � 20knts those that got away from the port end carnage were the usual suspects of Edginton/Lovering who lead for the first lap, Irish/Gotrell and Hawarth/Aston. Lap two saw the leaders head inshore and those that tacked early to head out into the tide were met with a nice lift giving Olive/Warren another good race and the race win coming from 6th at the leeward mark. Irish/Gotrell held on for 2nd and Hawarth/Aston for 3rd, with Paul Jenkins and Colin Hattan, posting their best race of a good series counting nothing worse than an 8th, in 4th. The wind dropped back down for the final race or the weekend, another port biased line meant that everyone flicked onto port as the gun went. Leading at the first Mark was Carveth/Davies in Fat Face with Peters/Griffin in the other Fat Face boat holding off Irish Gotrell and Date/Murray in Sea Sure. By the end of the run the two Fat Face boats and the Sea Sure boat arrived at the mark at the same time. Carveth/ Davies coming off best to go ahead and take the race win, which was shortened after the next run, with Date/Murray doing enough to take the event with a 1,3,1,2,2 scoreline. Peters/Griffin finished 3rd in this final race to take 5th overall. Irish/Gotrell counted 3,4,3,2,4 to take 2nd in front of Edginton/Lovering in RWO and Hawarth/Aston in 3rd. Thanks to the Race Officer and the team at Stokes Bay S.C. who as usual provided an excellent weekends racing and looked after us all� James Date 1001