The RS Vareo Open Meeting on Saturday 2nd April, held at Burghfield Sailing Club, was the second of the 2011 Gul Grand Prix events.
Conditions were perfect with the wind force three, gusting four and some spring warmth in the breeze. The westerly wind direction allowed for a long course up the lake, and some interesting decision-making as to which side to pass the islands. The shifts were big enough and the gusts strong enough to ensure large gains were always possible, and there was plenty of place changing throughout all the races.
Overall, Andrew Wilson scored what seemed a convincing win with three first places – but the racing was much closer than this suggested. Jeremy Symons led round the first lap in three of the races, but only in the third race could he hold his lead to the finish. Nick Crickmore excelled in converting third places to seconds on the last legs of the course with an uncanny knack (or real skill) in finding gusts on the downwind legs. These three sailors enjoyed some really close racing, with the overall result in the balance until the end of the last race.
Behind this trio, the competition for fourth place was also very tight, with a only single point separating fourth from seventh overall. Two fourth places gave Roger Brydges the fourth spot on countback. He had great boat speed, and was up with the top trio much of the time, but capsizing in two of the races didn’t help his score. Andy Seymour improved race by race, with his last race fourth ensuring he won the home fleet honours over Steve Trigg. Iain Robertson shrugged off a poor first race to take sixth place overall, while James Hamilton found the combination of his light weight and an absence of recent sailing made the racing hard work.
Our thanks go to the race officer Rob Martin and his team for very efficient race management, including a swift resetting of the course as the wind swung, and also to the rescue teams, for watching over Roger Brydges (!) and to the catering staff for our lunchtime refuelling. We all had a great day’s racing.
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