Results / Winter Championships Queen Mary SC - 16/02/2002
The Fat Face RS Winter Championships, 2002 � RS800 � Queen Mary SC
A fleet of 18 boats arrived at Queen Mary sailing club over the weekend
of 16/17 February for the Fat Face RS800 Winter Championships. Although
not a large fleet, many of the front runners from the series last year
were present for some great racing in the shifty Force 2/3.
Race 1 got away first time and with the fleet still very much together at
the end of the first lap, it was still all to play for. Steve
Irish/Martin Gotrel sailed a great second beat to open a lead which they
then extended to win comfortably by the finish. Behind them, things were
a lot more tense, with constant place changing between the five boats of
David/Fiona Sayce, Geoff Carveth/Craig Davies, Robin/Ben Wood, Ricky
Tagg/Rob Andrews and Lee Sydenham/Anne Vaudry. Carveth managed to get
through to second on the third and final run, with the Woods snatching
3rd.
After a slight shift of the course for race 2, a shorter start line led
to the only General Recall of the day. The fleet got away cleanly at the
second time of asking and again things were very close for the first lap
and a half. This time there was no break to be made and the race was
still very open until the last run. Colin Hatton/Paul Jenkins led down
the run from the Sayces and Sydenham/Vaudry. The gaps closed to see all
3 arrive at the last mark together. Jenkins/Hatton maintained the slight
advantage to take the gun, with the Sayces trying to get inside at the
final mark. Sydenham/Vaudry closed the door on them to take 2nd and
Paddy Gamble/Martin Frary just managed to snatch 3rd as the Sayces
quickly recovered from turns to hold on to 4th.
The breeze increased slightly for the final race and some new faces had a
turn at the front. Ian Jubb and Lesley Bennet (the new class Chairman)
led at the first mark before being overhauled by Matt Adams and Mark
Rhodes. However, Robin and Ben Wood were always in contention and sailed
the shifts well to take the lead at the final mark and win from
Irish/Gotrel, the Sayces and Carveth/Davies. Their consistency (3,5,1)
in the shifty conditions gave Robin and Ben Wood the overnight lead from
Sydenham/Vaudry and Carveth/Davies.
Sunday dawned foggy and windless. Despite the clearing of the fog, the
wind never materialized so after an hour and a half waiting on the water,
the decision was made to abandon. Saturday�s racing had shown that there
are new faces in the fleet who are already appearing at the front (we�ve
not mentioned Loopy yet have we � yes, even Paul Lewis was seen in the
top 5 at times on Saturday and finished 6th in the first race), and with
such close racing and only 5 points between the top 5 overall it again
promises to be a great season in the RS800 fleet.
1) Robin Wood/Ben Wood (British Steel SC) 9 pts
2) Lee Sydenham /Anne Vaudry (Hayling Island SC) 11 pts
3) Geoff Carveth/Craig Davies (Hayling Island SC) 12 pts
4) Steve Irish/Martin Gotrel (Draycote Water SC) 13 pts
5) David Sayce/Fiona Sayce (Hayling Island SC) 14 pts
6) Paul Jenkins/Colin Hatton (Weir Wood SC)
7) Phil Elford/Neil Arnott (Eastbourne SC)
8) Paul Lewis/Sue Ogg (British Steel)
8) Ricki Tagg/Ron Andrew (Haylng Island)
10) Ronald Miller/Peter Marshall (Dalgety Bay)
11) Matt Adams/Mark Rhodes (Bexhill)
11) Paddy Gamble/Martin Frary (Stokes Bay SC)
13) Spod Olive/Mike Warren (Stokes Bay SC)
14) Neil Ashby/Alan Higgs (Hayling Island)
15) Ian Jubb/Lesley Bennett (Hayling Island)
16) Andrew Smith/Beck Tobin (Stokes Bay SC)
17) Alistair Shires/Carl Mayhew (Stokes Bay SC)
17) Alistair Keck/Graeme Ryder (Oxford SC)