Results / Eastbourne SSC Open Eastbourne Sovereign S C - 26/06/2004

As promised by the Commodore of Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club, the weather gods delivered in style. A slightly reduced turn out of 23 boats due to Round the Island and other commitments, but they missed a blinder, and who wants to go keelboat racing when 6 races in conditions ranging from 15-25 knots and nice rolling waves are on the cards!? That toe loop at the back of the wing that seems to have been redundant all season was in constant use all weekend. The race committee, club members and volunteers did fantastic job of running and efficient and enjoyable weekend, making launching and landing a pleasure, and the 200's 700's and 800's were well looked after with chilli con carne and very cheap lager on Saturday night, including a cheesy DJ with a fantastic mullet. All the ingredients for an RS style messy night! Those who continued onto the Eastbourne local nightspot of TJ's were definitely looking the worst for wear on Sunday morning though. Saturday saw 15 knots from the SE. Sharing a course with the 700's provided entertainment in the form of Alex Koukourakis repeatedly wrapping himself around the pin end of the start line, you'd have though he'd know which way the tide was going at his home club! Thanks to Alex's demonstration there were no such pile ups as the 800's got away. James Date and Richie Burlingham went on to win all three races, with Dave Sayce and Chris Doe following them home in all three. Sam Neal and Mandy Bretherton had the next best performance of the day with 3,4,7 closely followed by Andy Jeffries and Allyson Ody with 4,9,3 and Simon Jenkins and Neil Arnott from the home club with 5,7,4. Rob Watson and James 'Gimp' Holmes had a consistent and scary scoreline of 6,6,6. Bad luck award of the day went to Matt Adams and John Date who hit an unidentified object on the way out to the start and were completely submerged by the time they got back to shore with a hole in their daggerboard case, they would have been mixing it up at the front of the fleet had they been out there... and upright... (see later in this report). Day two. Foam up! A steady 22 knot SW gusting through at 25+ at times meant for some proper crash and burn racing. A short course closer to the beach than yesterday with 5 laps was a bit of system shock for the fitness levels which were compromised further than normal for some by the night before. Race one and it was Jefferies/Ody first round followed by Adams/Date, a synchronised wipe out and layline miss by the two leaders allowed Date/Burlingham through for race win number 4, again followed by Sayce/Doe and Adams/Date. Race two saw Sayce/Doe into an early lead which they held (almost) all the way round. Date/Burlingham found a shift out of the right hand side of the last beat where there hadn't been one all race to sneak through and take the win. Adams/Date again recovering to third after stopping a couple of times on the first beat to inspect the bottom of their boat. Race 3 got away in an increasing breeze now steadily up at 25 knots and was led from a nice pin end start by Adams/Date showing that their boat does actually go quite fast when upright. Chased hard all the way round by Date/Burlingham and Jeffries/Ody, the pressure finally told and a over enthusiastic roll tack saw Adams/Date swimming and Date/Burlingham through for a perfect scorecard of 6 firsts. Adams/Date took second after a quick recovery. Sayce/Doe had called it a day early, happy counting all 2nd places for 2nd overall, with Jeffries/Ody doing enough for third from Neal/Bretherton in fourth. Watson/Gimp added two 5ths and a 6th to yesterday scoreline for 5th overall. Jono Ratnage and Max Goulden got the merit award for leading at the windward mark in race two on Saturday and for finishing all three races in difficult conditions on Sunday whilst still relatively new to the boat although they looked a bit confused by this at the prize giving. Thanks again to Eastbourne Sovereign SC and all involved for a fantastic weekend. Weymouth for the next Fat Face Racing Circuit event on the 10/11th July. James Date