29er Grand Prix at Datchet Water SC Day 2
by 29er Class Association on 26 Sep 2011
29er action 29er Class
Harken 29er Grand Prix was held at Datchet Water Sailing Club over the weekend of 24th and 25th September 2011.
Perfect variety over two days to give a fair test for all. Sunday was a gusty, challenging 12 to 15kts with a sun power sufficient to burn the odd unprotected nose. The winners of the day, by some margin, were Jack Hawkins/Chris Thomas who duly rocketed up the leaderboard to fifth overall after a rather dire first day. In general though it remained incredibly tight with only four points separating the top four with second and third needing the rulebook to work out the tiebreak.
In truth the event was eventually nailed down by Ollie Cooper/James Poyner who had led overnight. They briefly dropped out of the lead (but didn’t panic and start trying desperate moves but then again… with JP up front could they ever get off the horizontal to bother panicking?) when Vikki Payne/Steffi Orton opened beautifully. These two then endured a bit of a mare to eventually wind up eighth. Callum Ellis/Will Harris were right on the money in the last two races with a 2,1 finish to nick second overall from National Champs and fleet legends Phil Walker/John Mather. Just one point behind them were the top lasses Ruth & Tess Allan in fourth. Interestingly their discard was the best of the top 10.
Ian Payne/Chris Berry enjoyed a very solid Sunday to be well worth sixth and Joan Furness/Abbie Page were seventh despite still being only 10pts behind the winners.
All in all it was a perfect Indian Summer event. What price the summer continuing next w/e with the vast bulk of the fleet returning to Datchet for the next Open training. It’ll be a good one with 35 boats! There’ll be more coaches swanning around than you can shake a stick at. In the meantime it would be remiss to forget to thank Datchet Water SC who were fantastic for us with sharp officiating and great hospitality and Harken who have enabled us to get such a great GP series together. Thank
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