Seventh Merlin Rocket title for Richard Whitworth

by MROA media on 18 May 2009 A strong fleet of Merlin Rockets arrived at Pitsford Reservoir for the Merlin Inland Championships supported by P&B and Gull, many for the first time, to be warmly welcomed by a low calorie fry up . . . oh yes, we are athletes!

Richard Whitworth and Sally Townend were as persistent as ever, winning three of the five races and the Inland Champion title, a seventh time for Whitworth. Second place went to Matt Biggs and Rob Kennaugh, with Glen Truswell and Olly Turner in third.

For the first race, a ‘P’ course was set in a freshening south westerly breeze. The first beat saw Willam Warren lead from Matt Biggs having opted for the left hand side of the course, taking a lift on the port lay line.

The chasing group of Richard Whitworth, Mike Calvert, Alex Jackson and Tom Stewart closed the gap slightly on the second beat. Unfortunately, Alex had a minor capsizing issue at the gybe mark causing a major pile up (sorry Tom). For the next two laps Richard, and crew Sally Townend, reeled in the leading pair to overhaul them both. Matt was second and Will held third.

Race two and the relative new pairing of Mike Calvert and Chris Downham where set to show the fleet a clean pair of heels. William proved consistent with a second place and Andy Davis was back on the pace finishing third in the now challenging conditions.

The final race of the day saw a change in the course to a traditional triangle sausage formation. It paid to hit the right hand corner and take the lift off the bank. Simon Blake was first to clock this and first to tack off the line on to port. Carving his way through the starboard start boats he was quick to get in to clear air and was off.

The only boat to fly the kite down the first leg Simon and Phil established an early lead. However, with such a shifty wind direction, now blowing from the club, they lost their lead to 2008 Inlands and Silver Tiller winners Matt Biggs and Rob Kennaugh. Glen Truswell showed excellent form and boat handling to snatch second and Richard Whitworth banked a third.

After a hard day on the water everyone tucked in to a hearty meal. In fact quite a few people tucked in to quite a few meals didn’t we Mr Dodds. An intense fussball table competition and master class in dancing from team Tosh followed. The bar then sadly ran out of gin, and London Pride, and rum.
In hindsight our over indulgence was a good thing for it helped all those deciding to camp to sleep through Dave Winders car alarm that proceeded to go off every 15 minutes during the night. Normally not such an unusual occurrence was it not for the fact that Dave was asleep in the car at the time.

Sunday morning and the forecast came true, unfortunately. A light zephyr from the north east was just stable enough to get the two races in.

With a pin bias, but lift from the starboard lay, it was a toss up between which end to start from. In the end pressure over angle paid and those opting for the committee boat end were first to the bank, first in to the pressure and first to the windward mark.

New comer Richard Adams and crew Martin Weatherstone lead for the majority only losing to Richard and Sally who piped them to the line. Mike Stephens, sailing a vintage design ‘Passing Cloud’, revelled in the light airs to score a third with Glen Truswell fourth.

The final race and Richard Whitworth needed a top four to secure victory and Matt Biggs needed a win and Whitworth to be worse than fourth. With a dropping breeze it was a case of eyes out of the boat looking up the reservoir for those pressure patches. Duncan Salmon made a charge for the centre of the course while the majority headed for the right hand most windward corner.

With a port lift Duncan was rewarded with an early lead which he converted to a second place. Richard Whitworth was persistent as ever and displayed an excellent lesson in tactics winning the last race of the weekend and with it the Inland Champion title for the seventh time.

Merlin Rocket - Inland Championship 2009

1st 3703 Richard Whitworth Sally Townend Hollingworth 1 -6 3 1 1 6 pts
2nd 3705 Matt Biggs Rob Kennaugh Blithfield 2 5 1 5 -15 13 pts
3rd 3626 Glen Truswell Olly Turner Starcross YC 4 -9 2 4 4 14 pts
4th 3691 Mike Calvert Chris Downham Axe YC 5 1 5 -13 5 16 pts
5th 3684 Andy Davis Ellie Bremer Chase 7 3 4 -11 3 17 pts
6th 3655 Rich Adams Martin Weatherstone Midland 10 7 -14 2 9 28 pts
7th 3707 Alex Jackson Ben Hollis Shoreham (42.0 DNF) 10 10 9 10 39 pts
8th 3702 Duncan Salmon Ian Garwood Wembley 16 (42.0 DNF) 16 7 2 41 pts
9th 3640 Simon Blake Phil Dalby Cookham Reach 11 13 6 12 -20 42 pts
10th 3685 William Warren Chris Robinson Shoreham 3 2 13 25 -28 43 pts
11th 3662 Dave Winder Pippa Taylor Hollingworth 6 16 11 10 -19 43 pts
12th 3670 Steve Goacher Andy Tunnicliffe Royal Windermere YC 8 8 12 16 -18 44 pts
13th 3701 Tom Stewart Liam Dempsey Northampton SC 14 4 9 18 -21 45 pts
14th 3659 Julian Parry Liese Scott Hollingworth 12 14 7 -21 14 47 pts
15th 3704 Chris Lewns Tom Pygall Whitstable YC (42.0 DNC) 20 8 20 8 56 pts
16th 3676 Pat Blake Jill Blake Cookham Reach 13 12 21 -24 12 58 pts
17th 3690 A Dalby Frandy Pandy TVSC 9 11 15 -26 26 61 pts
18th 3649 Andrew Harris Pete Horn Tamesis (42.0 DNF) 28 23 6 6 63 pts
19th 3639 Steve Leney Gill Leney Blithfield -24 19 17 8 24 68 pts
20th 3560 Mike Stephens Matthew Peregrine-Jones Tamesis 31 -33 30 3 7 71 pts
21st 3611 Chris Dodds Jen Taylor HISC 19 27 (42.0 DNF) 15 16 77 pts
22nd 3510 Andy Bownes Chris Bownes TBA (42.0 DNF) 22 27 14 17 80 pts
23rd 3617 Tom Chadfield Andy Chadfield Blithfield 17 -24 22 22 22 83 pts
24th 3698 Robert O Toole Gabby Sellick Parkstone 22 25 26 -28 11 84 pts
25th 3650 L Tosh Rebecca Aldred Banbury 29 26 -32 17 13 85 pts
26th 3641 Mark Waterhouse Claire Langholz Parkstone 18 18 20 -38 37 93 pts
27th 3696 Alan Warren Ruth Johnson Shoreham 27 21 19 27 -32 94 pts
28th 3563 Paul Hollis Richard Elliott Midland 23 -29 29 19 23 94 pts
29th 3620 Andy Bines Derick Gentry Brightlingsea 20 17 25 -41 33 95 pts
30th 3619 David Charlton Celia Charlton Brightlingsea 21 (42.0 DNF) 18 31 29 99 pts
31st 3683 Louise Johnson George Kingsworth RYA 25 23 24 -39 34 106 pts
32nd 3665 Ross Jackson Dave Reid Shoreham 15 15 (42.0 DNC) 40 42.0 DNC 112 pts
33rd 3483 Simon Kerr Jenny Kerr Hunts SC -33 32 31 23 27 113 pts
34th 3680 Steve Watson Alison Torrens Midland 26 (42.0 DNC) 33 32 31 122 pts
35th 3339 Roger Ellis Tim Male Blithfield 34 31 (42.0 DNC) 37 25 127 pts
36th 3555 Tim Harridge Maria Gray Hampton 30 30 34 36 -38 130 pts
37th 3547 Peter Male Chris Male Blithfield 32 (42.0 DNC) 28 30 42.0 DNC 132 pts
38th 3634 B Archer C OToole Parkstone (42.0 DNF) 34 42.0 DNC 33 30 139 pts
39th 3509 James Clark Louise Ibbotson / Lorna Orton Trent Valley (42.0 DNC) 35 35 35 35 140 pts
40th 3688 Craig Bond Jayne Bond Brightlingsea 28 (42.0 DNF) 42.0 DNF 29 42.0 DNC 141 pts
41st 3706 Kevin Anderson Charles Anderson Hampton Ladies Tennis Club (42.0 DNC) 42.0 DNC 42.0 DNC 34 36 154 pts

Overall a very testing weekend’s sailing, boat handling on Saturday, headaches Sunday morning and a brain tease Sunday.

Northampton Sailing Club and P&B excelled themselves, a huge thanks to them for their help, we shall definitely return!!