Solo Open and Training at Bewl Valley SC

by Claire Clark on 30 Apr 2006 The National Solos held a training day followed by their annual Solo class open meeting over the weekend of 22nd/23rd April.

For the training session, the accurate forecast of very little wind gave the home fleet plus local visitors the opportunity to work on their light weather technique and discuss the differences in the rigs available from the different sail-makers.

Sunday dawned light and drizzly and the consensus was to postpone and have an early lunch in the hopes of an improvement. A very light easterly was at least stable in strength and direction so two races were held back to back on a short trapezoid course shared with the Phantom fleet. Steve Ede was first to the windward mark to enjoy a 30 yard lead from Godfrey Clark, Vanda Young and the chasing pack, which was how they finished.

The second race followed a similar pattern, but with Simon Corper taking second and Clark third. The fleet were mostly glad to hear the shorten course as the leaders actually began overtaking some of the slower Phantoms as the wind threatened to die away altogether.

Overall Results:

1st 4528 Steve Ede (Ardleigh SC)
2nd 4120 Godfrey Clark (Fishers Green SC)
3rd 4489 Simon Corper (Reading SC)
4th 4589 Ian Ayres (Kingsmead SC)