Gratton and Taylor win Sekonda RS Feva Nationals

by Gerald New on 27 May 2008
Holiday Monday and the final races for the Sekonda 2008 RS Feva Nationals at Hayling Island SC. Tim Gratton and Chris Taylor from HISC maintained their lead from Sunday's qualifying racing to take the Title.

The championship had stated with the first day's racing for the 80 entrants being postponed and then cancelled as force 6 to 7 gales hit the south coast.

Sunday was a better day and racing was held in Hayling Bay. After three races in the qualification flights phase of the event, Tim Gratton and Chris Taylor were tied in the lead with Jack and Barry Parkin. Both had two wins but Gratton and Taylor had a better discard at this point.

In third place were Derek and Eleanor Ness, in fourth Jessica Lavery and Philppa Lawson, and in fifth Alex Motherslee and Hamish Ellis. All on four points, just two behind the leading two crews. And it was very close on points down to 12th place, the top 12 covered by just seven points.

And so into the final day, Monday. Racing was delayed but finally got underway for the gold and silver fleets. Gratton and Taylor, tied with Jack and Barry Parkin at the start of the day, had a fifth in the first race won by James Bolingbroke and Matt Heathcote and then won the second race with their nearest rivals failing to stay in the hunt.

Big gainers were Mothersele and Ellis, who with a fourth in the first race, then sixth and added a victory in the final race to finish the event in second place.

Also jumping up the fleet were Bolingbroke and Heathcote. Eleventh at the start of the day, they won the first race and then added a fifth and a seventh to take third place overall.

RS Feva - Final Gold Fleet Leading positions (80 entries)

1st Tim Gratton Chris Taylor HISC 2 5 1 2 10 10
2nd Alex Mothersele Hamish Ellis Emsworth SC 4 4 6 1 15 15
3rd James Bolingbroke Matt Heathcote Dabchicks SC 8 1 5 7 21 21
4th Jack Parkin Barry Parkin HISC 2 10 11 4 27 27
5th Peter Curtis James Curtis Island Barn 7 2 16 3 28 28
6th Hugo Jones-Warner James Poyner HISC 6 15 9 6 36 36
7th Eilidh McIntyre Cassia Roberts HISC 7 3 10 18 38 38
8th Tim Norris James Norris 17 16 2 8 43 43
9th Debbie Darling Charlie Darling HISC 6 21 18 5 50 50
10th Hannah Maunder Rebecca Partington HISC 19 22 3 9 53 53
11th Jessica Lavery Philippa Lawson Emsworth SC 4 13 25 15 57 57
12th Samuel Rowell James Hudson Felixstowe Ferry SC 18 6 13 24 61 61
13th Steve McLean Syd McLean HISC 36 11 7 13 67 67
14th Alexandra Orton Stephanie Orton CYC 15 17 17 20 69 69
15th Cathy Lear Francine Counsell Oakham 16 19 8 27 70 70
16th Alice Kent Lucy Childs Oakham 6 28 20 17 71 71
17th Dan Fellows Bella Fellows Yealm YC 21 23 15 14 73 73
18th Sammy Bonella Alexis Streeter HISC 24 36 4 11 75 75
19th Peter McCoy Ben Hodges ESSC 27 8 29 12 76 76
20th Libby Watkins Abbie Heathcote WMYC 32 9 19 16 76 76

Event website - www.hisc.co.uk