The John Merricks
Tiger Trophy 3rd- 4th February
The tiger trophy is usually remembered
as one of the most windy and cold events of the year.
This year it was the opposite with very light winds
all weekend and warm sunny conditions leading to a few
of the 29er sailors going for swims whilst playing around
waiting to start.
The first start was a general recall with everyone rafting
up, trying to find a gap at the favoured starboard end
of the line.
The next start was black flag to hold everyone back
which seamed to do the trick. Ant Chapman learnt from
his mistake in the first start where he got rafted up,
and started a few boat lengths further down the line
with perfect timing. This put him clear ahead of the
other Musto’s, with such light winds racing for overall
honour’s wasn’t on the cards.
Buried in the fleet of 150 boats the race was on the
catch Ant and stay ahead of the surrounding Musto’s,
Despite closing the gap at times, Richard , Kit Stenhouse,
Mark Addison and Ian Turnbull kept swapping places for
second. Richard and Ian were the first casualties when
a 49er parked on the mark forcing them out wide for
the Thames A rater to suffocate them letting Kit and
Mark through.
Ant carefully picked his way around the course finding
the pressure bands whilst avoiding the 49ers and Thames
A Rater to finish a credible 8th and 1st MPS.
Richard sneaked passed Kit on the last gybe mark, not
making the same mistake as with the 49er, dropped and
then rehoisted after rounding the mark to get the inside
line on the next leg and covered Kit to the finish,
naughty Richard.
There was no further sailing on Saturday due to lack
of wind.
On Sunday, The pursuit race, things didn’t look good
with even less wind.
The racing was held in the south arm to catch what wind
there was. Ant got off to another flying start to show
the MPS fleet the best way around the course but it
wasn’t enough to catch the leaders ending up top MPS
in 24th. Giving him 8th overall.
Thanks to Ovington Boats for the logo kites
they looked great and it made it a lot easier to pick
out where the other Musto’s where.
Full results on www.rutlandsc.co.uk
|
