K1 Open at South Windermere Sailing Club
by Mike Deane 19 May 2016 20:19 AEST
14 May 2016
K1s at Windermere © SWSC
Finally a first for the K1 open series, a weather forecast that could be believed. At the start of the week, temperatures had soared, with Glasgow the hottest place in the UK. The weekend was forecast as fine, warm and winds from the East or North East. It turned out accurate and the K1 Northerns were held in delightful conditions, with extremely close sailing around the fleet, especially at the front.
There was a large contingent of K1s at South Windermere and all the local boats turned out, together with visitors from "down South". Chris Jukes, OOD set courses which entertained the sailors and avoided the worst wind shadows under the Lakeland fells, which made the racing terrifically exciting.
Race 1 saw Peter Wright (SWSC) take a small lead from Mike Deane (SWSC) and John Shimell (Chew Valley SC), these three stretched a short lead from the chasing fleet. With everything to play for on the last leg, Deane spent time match racing Shimell to maintain second, and on opening a small gap chased Wright hard. A lucky shift (in Wright's view) saw Deane take the first race by a quarter boat length.
After a return to SWSC's sailing base in Fell foot park for a well earned lunch, the fleet returned for back to back races 2 and 3. In race two, Shimell and Deane again engaged in match racing at the front of the fleet, a distraction that allowed Jack Thomson (SWSC) to slip through, and open a lead he wasn't going to lose. Shimell and Deane continued to dog fight until a disagreement over room and the gap between Shimell's K1 and the turn mark. This incident led to Deane agreeing that a cigarette wrapper was insufficient room for Shimmel, and Deane's subsequent RAF. This left Shimmel and Wright chasing Thompson, but they were unable to catch him. Further down the fleet, Dave Prichett (Rutland SC) was leading Tim Clarke, Jane Telford, Mervyn Hallworth and Paul Higgins (all SWSC).
Race 3 started with Deane, Wright and Thompson realising that whichever of them crossed the line first would win the event... This lead to an extremely close race, with all three covering each other, and taking advantage of shifts to try to break clear. The last downwind leg saw Deane covering Shimell and Wright, just holding first place, when Thomson broke to starboard and headed for the lead. This led to Deane trying to cover, finding a shift, and heading into the last mark a with Wright outside, and Thompson rounding just astern. Deane headed for the line, dropping Wright down to prevent him passing, then hardening up to stop Thompson. On the line Deane led Thompson by 4 seconds, with Shimmel in third, and Wright fourth, both within 20 seconds of Deane.
All agreed that it was a day of great close racing, and we look forward to a rematch at the next K1 open, 11-12th June, Lyme Regis.
Overall Results:
1 Mike Deane, K1-106
2 Jack Thompson, K1-58
3 John Shimell, K1-77
4 Peter Wright,K1-16
5 Dave Pritchett, K1-105
6 Tim Clarke, K1-5
7 Jane Telford, K1-33
8 Mervyn Hallworth, K1-26
9 Paul Higgins, K1-23