B14 Nationals - Day 1 report

by Alan Davis on 11 Jul 2014 Competitors at the 2014 B14 Nationals arrived at the beach to the forecast 15-20 knots blowing from a direction famously described by Jim Saltonstall as ‘oribble'.

With some, frankly, excellent work by the Race Committee the shifty conditions produced three great races with the teams who worked out the wind extending some big leads over the fleet.

Race 1 was run in conditions that favoured the convergence zone on the left side of the beat, which caused some to rely on the left corner later in the day with the opposite result! Mark Watts and Chris Bishop (Ullman Sails) led the fleet around lap 1 from current European Champions Ben McGrane and Olivier Vidal (P&B South) and a tight group of boats including Scott Gray and Charlie Cobourn in 'the Grey Boat', Peter Knight and Jane Reeves (Demelza) and Alan Davis and Toby Barsley-Dale (Troublegum). Scott and Charlie took the lead downwind and rounded the leeward gate in the lead, but were then overhauled by P&B South on lap 2. P&B South sailed the perfect beat and sailed away to win race 1 with defending champions, Mike Bees and Ferret second and World Champions Tim Harrison and Jonny Ratcliffe (Anthill Mob) third.

Race 2 was run in slightly more breeze, but contained as many snakes as ladders. The second beat proved critical with four boats getting the jump on the fleet - P&B South extended their lead to record their second win, followed by Ullman Sails, Troublegum and Chris Lewns and Tom Pygall (Whitstable Marine). The remained of the fleet were led home by Bees and Ferret.

Race 3 was the best of the day’s wind. P&B South showed they were human with a couple of minor strategic mistakes and a kite problem, but they quickly recovered to take fourth. Bees and Ferret took the win from Ullman Sails with Anthill Mob in close attendance. The World Champions in Anthill Mob collected more points on day one than they had in the whole of the 2013 Worlds…

B 14 Nationals

Paignton Sailing Club

Results as of 16:29 on July 10, 2014

Overall

Sailed: 3, Discards: 0, To count: 3, Entries: 27, Scoring system: Appendix A

Rank	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	R1	R2	R3	Total	Nett
1st	757	Netley	Ben McGrane	Oliver Vidal	1.0	1.0	4.0	6.0	6.0
2nd	771	Brightlingsea	Mike Bees	Martin Worth	2.0	5.0	1.0	8.0	8.0
3rd	791	Weston	Mark Watts	Chris Bishop	4.0	2.0	2.0	8.0	8.0
4th	758		Tim Harrison	Jonny Ratcliffe	3.0	6.0	3.0	12.0	12.0
5th	787		Alan Davis		8.0	3.0	5.0	16.0	16.0
6th	785	Restronguet	Peter Knight	Jane Reeves	6.0	10.0	7.0	23.0	23.0
7th	788	Whitstable	Mark Barnes		9.0	11.0	8.0	28.0	28.0
8th	620		Scott Gray		5.0	18.0	6.0	29.0	29.0
9th	877	RYA	Dan Cowin	Dam Hollands	10.0	8.0	12.0	30.0	30.0
10th	786		Gerry Fermor-Brown	Leaky Fermor-Brown	7.0	15.0	11.0	33.0	33.0
11th	744	Netley / Stokes Bay	Chris Duffin	Harvy Nott	19.0	7.0	10.0	36.0	36.0
12th	761	Whitstable	Chris Lewns	Tom Pygall	27.0 DNF	4.0	9.0	40.0	40.0
13th	772	Weston	Kathy Sherratt	Charlott Jones	12.0	14.0	15.0	41.0	41.0
14th	4		Josh Wilce		17.0	9.0	17.0	43.0	43.0
15th	764	Starcross	Tony Blackmoor	Meg Baker	11.0	12.0	22.0	45.0	45.0
16th	783	West Mersea	Henry Wells	Ben Heathcote	20.0	13.0	13.0	46.0	46.0
17th	763		Don Forster		13.0	16.0	18.0	47.0	47.0
18th	762	Starcross	Crispin Taylor	Guy Taylor	16.0	19.0	14.0	49.0	49.0
19th	79	Netley	Tom Gatehouse	Kate Wardle	15.0	23.0	16.0	54.0	54.0
20th	766	Broxbourne	Barry Price	Al Storer	18.0	17.0	21.0	56.0	56.0
21st	2		Carl Raynes		21.0	21.0	19.0	61.0	61.0
22nd	789	Restronguet	Henry Metcalf	Chris Webber	14.0	28.0 DNF	20.0	62.0	62.0
23rd	768	Hayling	James Gardner	Anne Gardner	22.0	22.0	24.0	68.0	68.0
24th	702	Porthpean	Paddy Seyler	Steve Coello	24.0	20.0	25.0	69.0	69.0
25th	730	West Mersea	Tom Russell Grant	Stafford Glover	23.0	24.0	23.0	70.0	70.0
26th	722	Restronguet	Ben Lloyd-King	Stephen Watkins	27.0 DNF	25.0	26.0	78.0	78.0
27th	672	Queen Mary	Christan Wilms	Daniela Alt	28.0 DNC	28.0 DNF	28.0 DNC	84.0	84.0