Holt Tide Ride 2006 - HISC

Girl Wins Holt Tide Ride Final.

Kit Stenhouse won the final of the Holt 2006 Tide Ride to give her 3rd overall, a good day for the family as husband Richard finished 2nd giving him 1st Overall. 12 Musto Skiffs and 15 RS700s raced off scratch and MPS finished 1st to 5th overall, a convincing win over the RS700.

The Holt Tide Ride is a special event of high octane racing: six knots of tide, and a short windward leeward course with a double gate ensures spectator action. The tension is cranked up by black flag starts and no discards. This puts a big emphasis on the skill of controlled risk taking, the key to winning championships.

On Saturday the fleet was split into 5 flights with 4 races each to sail. The emphasis on this stage was conservative racing, aiming to finish in the top three in each race using good boat handling through the gates and tactical positioning of the laylines. Richard Stenhouse excelled in the choppy conditions and had double speed, confortably winning all his 4 races. Ian Renilson MPS won three races, Andrew Peake RS700 won his first and last race and Dave Poston MPS won one race.

Overnight the Leaderboard was:

Ist MPS Richard Stenhouse. 4 points
2nd MPS Ian Renilson. 6 points
3rd MPS Grahame Oliver. 10 points
4th RS700 Andrew Peak. 11 points
5th MPS Neil Upton Brown. 11 points
6th MPS Rick Perkins. 13 points

Sunday, The Semi-final races. A top 6 in the semi would get you to the final. The results of racing did not count towards overall position, time to play it safe. With the wind equal to the tide strength Bev Moss positioned the course perfectly.

Semi-final A winner was Simon Reynolds, second was Daniel Henderson beating Richard Stenhouse who finishes 3rd.

Daniel a 29er sailor showed that with some help from Paul Manning from Ovington Boats setting up his boat and a few tips from the MPS sailors you can be straight on the pace. Definately one to watch in the future ...

Semi-Final B Kit lead at the top mark but miss judged the gate to finish 2nd to Ant Chapman.

The finals being double points it was time to throw caution to the wind. Ian Renilson got a great start with Kit, They rounded the top mark with a comfortable lead. Richard made up for an average start with a fast downwind to catch the leaders.

Kit blocked Richard out at the leeward mark forcing him out wide allowing Renilson back in the chase. Kit kept the boys in check to the finish, Richard finished second, Simon Reynolds Passed Ian to take Third.

A big thank you to Holt and HISC for holding the annual Musto Skiff / RS700 showdown. It is great to have these two high performance classes racing together.

Tide Ride "Winners". (L to R) Kit Stenhouse, Tim Hancock (Event Organiser), Richard Stenhouse and Tim Chapman (standing in for Ian Renilson who was on his way back to Scotland!!!) Photo Paul Manning

Report on HISC Site >>>

Personal thoughts from Kit on the Tide Ride

The Holt Tide Ride was fun, I felt excited to race the different race formats and the head to head Musto Skiff / RS700 challenge.

We had perfect conditions on Saturday which I found very challenging having to work out why I capsized on a gybe which wouldn’t normally be an issue, when I was leading! The solution as to ease the main further than normal to allow for the tripping effect of the exceptionally strong tide. After this average start to the event with 2 mid fleet results I saved my day with a second and a third to bring me up to 8th overall in the windier conditions. Which shows you don’t need to be super strong and heavy to sail a skiff.

Due to the format of the racing I was still in with a chance of winning overall.

On Sunday with lighter winds and the tide so strong, pre-start manoeuvres were crucial, once out of position it handed the race to you competitors.

On the semi final I allowed the boat below to be swept down by the tide to give me room to accelerate before the gun, so I had speed which then gave me height on the boats to windward.

The Finals start the Tide effect was less and I predicted the fleet would bunch on the committee boat leaving a mid line gap to do a timed run and pop out ahead. It was hard to stay ahead of the pack with so many manoeuvres to get through the gate and the slightest error of lay line would cost the race, I was red faced at the finish.

One of the fun bits was realising I was joint 2nd overall with Ian Renilson, the sad bit was I lost on the tie break which was fair as I had capsized the day before. Robbing Richard and I of an elusive Stenhouse 1st & 2nd. We both were very happy to win the generous Holt vouchers and are looking forward to the Tide Ride next Year.

Sailing Phohots by Ian Jubb/sailboatdeliveries.com