Results / RS Fat Face Racing Circuit Draycote Water SC - 20/09/2003

A diminished group of RS800�s turned up to Draycote for the last Fat Face circuit event of the year. Post nationals and end of season financial hangovers being a possible explanation, the other reason probably that Draycote is probably too far north for most of the south coast bound sailors to drive to... It�s only two hours away� well, it should be. Due to the County show or flower show and fun fair or whatever it was at Newbury. 5 hours was the time from Southampton (when leaving at 9am slightly hungover due to the previous nights festivities). This left James Date and Mike Warren in Sea Sure a little late for the first race. Starting 2 seconds inside the 5 minute time limit after the gun as Steve Irish and Martin Gotrell in Magic Marine approached the windward mark followed by Chris Mayhew and Mark Stone and Alex Davies and Sarah Hughes. The conditions were such that catching up was possible, with holes and shifts everywhere in true Draycote style. At one point it looked like Date/Warren might take the race win having found their way to the front, but in the end lost out to Irish/Gotrell and Mayhew/Stone. Race two saw some even more bizarre conditions with people twin wiring downwind only yards away from those getting aquainted with the foredeck. Irish/Gotrell took charge of the race, which they won from Date/Warren with Davies/Hughes in third. The third race was postponed until Sunday. Day two brought more wind, with some people not looking quite as sharp as the day before after Steve and Paula Irish�s hospitality and guided tour of their local drinking facilities in Coventry. Superb racing with the added excitement of 40 degree shifts with the gusts meaning laylines were missed downwind. The race committee got a couple of scares with people trying to hold their kites to the finish line as others before them had done� only to find themselves accelerating directly at the committee boat with no way of heading up to get through the line! Chris Haworth and Stuart Aston from BCYC turned up for the Sunday and opened the day with their first of three bullets taking this race from Irish/Gotrell who lead it for most of the way round. Davies/Hughes added another 3rd to their scorecard. The next race was lead for the first lap by Date/Warren but again Haworth/Aston came through using all their puddle sailing expertise to win again. These two were a long way clear by the finish with Irish/Gotrell in third. Haworth/Aston won race three with Irish/Gotrell taking second ahead of Date/Warren. The Haworth/Aston white wash was avoided as Irish/Gotrell took the last race of the day with Mayhew/Stone making another appearance in the top three ahead of Date/Warren. This left Steve Irish and Martin Gotrell in Magic Marine to take the event from Date/Warren in Sea Sure second, but an fine display of pond sailing from Chris Haworth and Stuart Aston who only did the Sunday scoring 1,1,1,2 which saw them third overall. Chris Mayhew and Mark Stone took fourth overall with Alex Davies and Sarah Hughes in fifth Thanks to the race committee at Draycote for a superb job including a lot of mark moving to keep the courses good, and bangers and mash and lager after racing.