Great North Asymmetric Challenge at Bassenthwaite Sailing Club

by Ben Robertson on 28 Apr 2017 Eight RS400’s turned up at Bassenthwaite Sailing Club for the 2017 Great Northern Asymmetric Challenge and the second traveller of the Northern Tour. The sun was out as everyone arrived in what has to be a solid rival for the most beautiful scenery on any of the tour events. With a building wind and sun forecast all weekend the outlook was good.

The racing started in a light breeze with regular shifts from the shoreline. This produced some interesting racing through the day as the breeze built. The local boys, Mark and Joe, showed the fleet a clean pair of heels in race one as the fleet was trying to figure out the shifts, with plenty of people ending up on the wrong side. As the day continued the racing was close, Chris Pickled and Matt Sharman managed a clean sheet for the following three races with the rest of the fleet chasing hard, leaving them overnight leaders. Mark and Joe followed up with Ben Robertson and Jenny Douglas sitting in third.

The race officer did an excellent job of getting the races restarted throughout the day despite regular swings in the wind.

Day two started in a similar manner to day one with light and unstable winds but that filled in steadily as racing approached, up until the fleet launched to plane out to the start line. Big swings and getting the shifts right were once again the name of the game.

Once again the race officer managed to fire away four races. Chris and Matt gave the rest of the fleet a masterclass in how to play the shifts throughout the day and led the way to a solid win in each race, despite David Moore and Ben Murrell giving them a run for their money in the final race. Mark and Joe once again put in a solid performance to secure second overall.

Some close racing was had by everyone in gorgeous scenery in the sun, shifts aside, and the race officer did a fantastic job of getting eight races away. Congratulation to Chris and Matt for putting in a great performance to win the event.

 Overall Results (RS400 positions in larger fleet):

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	PY	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Pts
1st	703	Chris Pickles	Matt Sharman	Delph SC	942	3	1	1	1	3	1	1	2	7
2nd	1082	Mark Somerville	Joe Roberts	Bassenthwaite SC	942	1	2	2	4	7	2	2	6.5	13
3rd	1161	Ben Robertson	Jenny Douglas	N/A	942	12	18	8	3	5	4	4	9	33
4th	1401	Bill Kenyon	Steve Blackburn	Budworth SC	942	15.5	13	5	6	6	10	7	3	37
5th	1003	David Moore	Ben Murrell	Blyth/YDSC	942	11	15	7	9	10	6	11	4	47
6th	669	Jacob Ainsworth	Kayleigh Roberts	South Shields SC	942	9	16	6	5	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	84
7th	1155	Nick Holt	Derek Hill	Tynemouth	942	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	12	15	10	10	95
8th	810	Richard Fahey			942	19	19	21	22	22	17	18	18	112