19th International Flying Fifteen World Championships day 4

by Lindsay Lyons, RHKYC Media on 5 Nov 2013 At the 19th International Flying Fifteen World Championships, having pushed racing to the point where he was the maximum permissible one race ahead, the Worlds RO, Jerry Rollin, was able to relax a little today with the requirement for one race, in a target time of 120 minutes.

After yesterday’s grizzly conditions, ‘overcast grey’ seemed like a distinct improvement, accompanied by 15 to 20kts of appreciably cooler north easterly breeze and the odd patch of blue sky.

Race management may have felt slightly redundant today, as the fleet posted an ‘all clear’ start at the first time of asking, with El Toro setting the early pace, reaching the windward mark in just over 20 minutes, ahead of Steve Goacher, The Wife’s fault and Foof.

An 11 minute downwind leg saw Foof sneak into third, with Alan Bax taking up fifth position, but 20 minutes later, the Ineffable’s rounded in fifth place, holding Betty in sixth.

Given the longer target time, the pin boat weighed anchor and motored to the windward end of the course to lay a finish line, allowing the team to view some of the man overboard and emergency rigging procedures practiced by the ‘Fifteens, including one crew going up the mast after the main halyard – no mean feat in the washing machine conditions of the Lamma patch.

With the sun breaking through, the breeze started to lighten and five minutes inside the target time El Toro coasted home at the top of the finish board, a mere 16 seconds ahead of Goacher, with Matthew Owen / Andrew Reed a minute behind. Betty and Foof had a fierce battle to the finish, with Betty making fourth by the narrowest of margins, relegating Graham Vials to an unaccustomed (but discardable) fifth.

Nick and Janet Jerwood have shown remarkable consistency in both the Nationals and the Worlds and posted a sixth today, however after five races, with El Toro able to discard their BFD score, the overall standing show Vials in first on 5 points, ahead of El Toro and Ineffable on 12 apiece. With two races remaining, the 19th International Flying Fifteen World Championship is still anyone’s for the taking.

Top Hong Kong boat is currently Noisy Forefather, helmed by Cosmas Grelon, in 18th overall with fact or fiction in 21st and Uffa Fox Ache in 24th.

Provisional Elapsed Times Race 5
Rank	Prefix	Sail No.	Bow	Boat Name	Helm	Crew	Elapsed	Points
1	AUS	3933	46	El Toro	Grant Alderson	Dean McAullay	01:54:47	1
2	GBR	4021	13	TBA	Steve Goacher	Phil Evans	01:55:03	2
3	AUS	3684	40	The Wife's Ffault	Matthew Owen	Andrew Reed	01:55:56	3
4	GBR	3920	6	Betty	Greg Wells	Andrew Jameson	01:56:32	4
5	GBR	4004	1	Foof	Graham Vials	Chris Turner	01:56:33	5
6	AUS	3986	50	Ineffable	Nick Jerwood	Janet Jerwood	01:56:45	6
7	GBR	3998	10		Alan Bax	Chris Hewkin	01:57:06	7
8	GBR	4019	11	Pure Magic	David Tabb	Chewey Sherrell	01:58:30	8
9	GBR	3953	9	Fforca del Vento	Robert Hogben	Glyn Morgan	01:58:52	9
10	AUS	3992	52	Glamour Buoys	Gregory Leaversuch	Peter Barblett	01:58:56	10
11	AUS	3930	45	Aussie Falcon	Dale Collings	Glenn Scheen	02:00:05	11
12	GBR	3936	7	Smooth and Stoned	Steve Douthwaite	Paul Averley	02:00:09	12
13	AUS	3855	43	Fflashpoint	Peter Rooke	Martin Arrowsmith	02:00:10	13
14	AUS	3982	49	Storyteller	Christopher Paterson	Rupert Leslie	02:00:17	14
15	AUS	3743	41	Spot the Difference	Greg Tonnison	Steve Roberts	02:00:33	15
16	AUS	3972	48	PHAROS Financial Group	Ashley Smith	Adam Kingston	02:01:08	16
17	GBR	4020	12	Freaking Fantabulous	Graham Scroggie	Ben Scroggie	02:01:10	17
18	AUS	3797	42	Changing Lanes	David Swan	Matt Elliot	02:01:27	18
19	AUS	3880	44	Where The Bl**dy Hell Are You	Craig Rainey	Ian Rainey	02:01:43	19
20	HKG	3981	32	Tchaikoffsky	Howard Williams	Huw Riley	02:01:46	20
21	FRA	3722	25	Noisy Forefather	Cosmas Grelon	Rory Godman	02:02:51	21
22	GBR	3539	3	Hakuna Matata	John Hanson	Helen Selden	02:03:04	22
23	HKG	4015	35	Uffa Fox Ache	Barry Hayes	Sheridan Teasel	02:03:11	23
24	NZL	3714	36	jaffa	Andrew Taylor	Greg Taylor	02:03:13	24
25	AUS	4010	53	Mr Fox	Jade lane	William Ian Lane	02:03:24	25
26	GBR	4022	14	Always Fforever	Andy Goddard	Mal Hartland	02:03:29	26
27	AUS	3989	51	Fast Lane 4	John Wilson	David Tucker	02:03:42	27
28	HKG	3997	34	Tomffoolery	Tom Sheppard	Peter Barker	02:04:27	28
29	HKG	3882	29	No Name	Koichi Yamamoto	Shinji Ishiwata	02:04:28	29
30	HKG	3305	18	Ffact or Ffiction	Simon Pickering	Rafael Buitre	02:05:24	30
31	AUS	3620	39	Casper	Howard Faulks	Nick Faulks	02:05:30	31
32	HKG	3876	28	French Fries	Akira Takada	Wataru Takada	02:05:41	32
33	HKG	3701	24	Puff'n Stuff	David Chow	Mark Lyons	02:05:42	33
34	GBR	3901	5	Freewheelin'	Mike Kilbee	Tony Cox	02:06:15	34
35	AUS	3964	47	Fforeigner	Simon Lucas	Aileen Lucas	02:06:16	35
36	GBR	3692	4	fentura	Nick Heath	Pippa Noon	02:06:24	36
37	ESP	3735	16	Pathffinder	Michael Clough	Hendrik Penndorf	02:06:32	37
38	GBR	3939	8	Athol	Athol King	Trevor Bellis	02:06:35	38
39	HKG	3979	31	Kerfuffle	Carlyon Knight-Evans	Lucy Sutro	02:07:37	39
40	HKG	3830	27	Squiffy	Joe Nelson	David Bone	02:08:05	40
41	HKG	3469	20	Frantic Forties	Wai Chuen Chan	Jack Leung	02:10:51	41
42	HKG	3990	33	FfreeFire 90	Sam Chan	Nick Atkinson	02:11:16	42
43	AUS	3545	38	Frequent Flyer	Jennifer Sims	Andrew Wallace	02:11:39	43
44	HKG	3500	21	FFatal Attraction	Murray Latham	Nigel Davis	02:12:29	44
45	HKG	3828	26	Ffirecracker	Naoki Ishihara	Martin Heath	02:31:38	45
46	NZL	3754	37	Business	Sandra Williams	Graeme Robinson	DNF	53
46	IRL	4002	15	Afloat.ie	John Lavery	David O'Brien	DNC	53
46	GBR	627	2	Vamoose	Bobby Salmond	Robert Till	DNS	53
46	HKG	3304	17	Skiver	Louis Brink	Thomas Issac	DNC	53
46	HKG	3533	22	My Ffair Lady	Brian Henderson	Ben Muskett	DNC	53
46	HKG	3468	23	Zest	Chris Howard	Andrew Howard	DNF	53
46	HKG	3415	19	Fflippin' Muppets	Kunihiro Fukushima	Motokazu Nlshimura	DNF	53