GP14 World Championships - Dreaded day 3

by GP14 Worlds on 16 Aug 2012 Day three was the dreaded day at the GP14 World Championships for the heavier crews among the 130 competing boats. There were lighter winds, a chop that was difficult to cut through and a tide that was flooding in with force. Overnight, the wind had backed to the south/south east and throughout the day the movement continued, resulting in there being a short, and a long way to go up the beats.

Tenth in Monday’s third race was Ross Kearney and Ed Bradburn, so it fell to them to release the gate on 'Super Spars' race 4. Being forced to go right didn’t seem to hinder Ross as he was able to get across the fleet before the main wind-shift of the day took place. Weirdly, hard right lost, hard left lost; just wherever the better sailors went, it paid. As I said, weird!! Matt Burge and Rich Wagstaff in their P&B driven Winder hull led this race from start to finish, taking the gun from Ger Owens crewed by Melanie Morris in their Duffin hull, half black, half varnished timber; stunning to see cutting through the water.

Mike Senior and Chris White took third in this race, to stretch their lead in the event by a point, as their closest adversaries had a disappointing race, compared to their high standards. Taking the Silver fleet were Colin Rainback and Andrew Burge in eighth place, top Bronze taken by Ed Hutton and Megan Hicklin, coming in 18th, closely followed by James and Judith Downes popping up in low 20s mixing it with the Gold and Silver fleeters and holding their own.

During the lunch break, the wind almost evaporated away as the sun temporarily burnt its way through the cloud. Surprisingly for many, the PRO started the race sequence for race 5, sponsored by 'Yachts & Yachting', resulting in many boats struggling to get to the start line, being opened by Andy Clewer and Jez Nickolls. This poor start for many, spread the fleet more than usual by the windward mark, led round by Christian Birrell and Ben Ainsworth. These two, sailing the first Boon moulded hull from Steve’s workshop in Stoke, were in control of the race from gun to gun, stretching their lead throughout, their yellow spinnaker distinctive amongst the multi-coloured arrays out in Looe Bay.

Behind them the Burge/Wagstaff machine was steam-rolling its way to the top of the standings with a fourth top three finish, both sailors looking behind with a wry smile, seeing the Senior/White combo having its first disappointing result of the regatta. Simon Potts and Pete Grey made up for a disastrous race 4 with their first podium finish, coming in third.

The pathfinders, Clewer and Nickolls, were able to make the most of having a two boat length advantage at the start, as they came home in seventh place, taking Silver honours. The Bronze race was won by Chris Winters and Julian Forde, their third top forty of the series.

With the results online, the positions now take a discarded race into consideration, allowing those boats who have had one disaster to shoot up the rankings. The top three positions are still only separated by five points; Matt Burge and Rich Wagstaff lead the Gold, Mark Wolf and Alain Renaud the Silver, Ed Dutton and Megan Hicklin leading the way in the Bronze fleet. Top youth sailors are Sam Blocksidge and Connie Hicklin, just inside the top twenty.

Wednesday is the lay day, probably a good thing really as the forecast is for some big winds to batter the south coast. Wind guru shows 3.5metre swell on Thursday with gusts up to 39 knots, a baptism of fire for many in the fleet as racing hopefully resumes. Bring it GP14 Worlds website