Solo End of Season Championships at Draycote Water Sailing Club

by Jeremy Atkins on 3 Nov 2010

Solo End of Season Championships report.

Most visitors are welcome at Draycote Water, but killer shrimp are not. Such is the lack of welcome extended to these foreign fiends that they have to be washed off all visiting boats before launching.

As one of Draycote’s largest open events, the Solo End of Season Championships provided a logistical nightmare of washing over 50 visiting boats on Saturday 30th October. This was achieved efficiently by a team of 15 Draycote Solo volunteers allowing the fleet of 61 boats to be on the water in time for the scheduled 11am start of the first race.

Unfortunately a more welcome visitor, the wind, was not cooperating and the PRO, Chris Avery, struggled to set a course in the shifting winds. An optimistic start sequence was run with a heavily starboard biased line resulting in the inevitable general recall as there were more boats within 5 boat lengths of the committee boat than many fleets have at their open meetings!

This break allowed the course to be reconfigured for the more settled wind direction and, after one more general recall, the fleet got cleanly away under the black flag. There was a good breeze and Ian Pinnell was an initial leader, but lost out on one of the many wind shifts to let David McGregor take the gun, closely followed by Andy Davis and last year’s winner, Chris Brown.

After a break for lunch, the fleet re-assembled and, with the black flag flying again, got cleanly away for race 2. The wind was slightly lighter now, but with lots of shifts throughout the race. It looked like a clear order had been established, but those in first and second place lost out as the top places were reversed on the final beat. Ewan Birkin-Walls took the race, followed by David McGregor and then Tim Riley.

The wind had reduced further for the final race, which Ian Pinnell led from the start at the pin end with a nice lift into the first mark on port. The local boats of Jon Clarke and Richard Pye were finally getting into their stride and took the next two places as a permanent wind shift made the race rather processional.

David McGregor had put the most consistent series together with a first and second place to count, and Ian Pinnell’s win in the final race gave him second place from Andy Davis on tie break.

As is usual at this event, prizes were presented for the Solo Regional series, the Veterans and Grand Master Championship series and the event itself.

Draycote Water would like to thank our welcome visitors for helping keep our unwelcome visitors away.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1st	4984	David McGregor	Hayling Island	1	2	-8	3
2nd	5090	Ian Pinnell	Northampton SC	5	-10	1	6
3rd	5166	Andy Davis	Blithfield SC	2	4	-6	6
4th	4357	Richard Pye	DWSC	-12	6	3	9
5th	4336	Tim Riley	Littleton SC	6	3	-14	9
6th	4712	Jon Clarke	DWSC	10	-15	2	12
7th	5081	Nigel Snedker	Chew Valley Lake SC	9	-13	4	13
8th	5103	David Sword	Loch Tummel SC	4	9	-17	13
9th	4884	Steve Denison	Hollingworth Lake	-18	8	7	15
10th	509	David Winder	Hollingworth Lake	-13	7	10	17
11th	5161	Michael Sims	Carsington SC	7	12	(DNF)	19
12th	5075	Chris Goldhawk	Chew Valley Lake SC	8	-11	11	19
13th	5137	Chris Brown	RYA	3	17	-21	20
14th	5135	Ewan Birkin-Walls	GW SC	21	1	(DNF)	22
15th	4991	Stuart Hydon	Shustoke SC	17	5	(DNF)	22
16th	5139	Nigel Davies	DWSC	14	-19	12	26
17th	5068	Mark Lee	Spinnaker SC	15	16	(DNF)	31
18th	5104	Bob Taylor	Tata SC (Margam)	27	-31	5	32
19th	5122	David Mitchell	RYA	16	18	(DNF)	34
20th	5021	Andrew Fox	Crosby SC	11	25	-32	36
21st	4993	Tony Hanan	RYA	-48	23	13	36
22nd	4688	Alistair Roaf	Chipstead	-38	14	25	39
23rd	4572	David Redpath	St Marys Loch SC	-37	22	18	40
24th	4932	Kitching	Frampton on Severn	-30	20	20	40
25th	4628	Neil Wilkinson	Shustoke SC	26	-32	16	42
26th	5073	Ray Collins	Locks SC	19	24	(DNF)	43
27th	4669	Nick Rawlings	Hayling Island	23	21	-26	44
28th	4205	Mike Gray	Fishers Green	-46	30	15	45
29th	4860	Jeremy Atkins	DWSC	-31	26	19	45
30th	4660	Keith Smith	King George	25	-28	24	49
31st	4843	Haannah Showell	Shustoke SC	-52	41	9	50
32nd	5113	Chris Gillard	Sheffield Viking	22	29	(DNF)	51
33rd	4878	Keith Lancaster	Rugby & Daventry SC	-33	33	22	55
34th	4684	Barry Wicks	Maidenhead	28	27	(DNC)	55
35th	5096	John Webster	Carsington SC	29	(DNC)	28	57
36th	4483	Nick Fisher	Chew Valley Lake SC	-41	36	23	59
37th	5080	Mike Ball	Papercourt SC	24	35	(DNC)	59
38th	4856	Robert Signer	Lochard SC	20	-46	41	61
39th	4810	Andrew Smith	DWSC	40	-49	29	69
40th	4474	Dave Smith	Hollingworth Lake	39	-50	30	69
41st	4481	P McCrea	DWSC	-45	34	35	69
42nd	5138	Patrick Overs	Paxton Lakes SC	-51	44	27	71
43rd	4169	Peter Lawson	British Steel	-47	38	33	71
44th	4772	Mike Wilkie	Littleton	34	-48	38	72
45th	3931	Brian Fisher	Melton Mowbray	-54	43	31	74
46th	4581	Derek Jackman	Chichester YC	-53	40	36	76
47th	4771	Andrew Liddington	Rugby & Daventry SC	36	-51	40	76
48th	5052	David Walford	Broadwater SC	42	37	(DNF)	79
49th	4650	Colin Bradley	Pennine SC	(DNF)	47	34	81
50th	5028	Alastair Raynard	Carsington SC	43	39	(DNF)	82
51st	4668	Geoff Silcock	Bowmoor SC	-56	42	42	84
52nd	4952	Joe Rycroft	Littleton	35	53	(DNF)	88
53rd	1525	Clive Gimson	Melton Mowbray	49	-57	39	88
54th	4972	Mike Furner	DWSC	-57	45	44	89
55th	4399	John Coleman	DWSC	(DNF)	54	37	91
56th	186	Will Loy	Littleton	32	(DNC)	DNF	95
57th	4794	Bob Cartwright	Blithfield SC	50	-56	45	95
58th	4400	Paul Bristow	Burghfield SC	44	55	(DNF)	99
59th	3716	Bill Hutchings	Tonbridge	-59	59	43	102
60th	3562	Hamish F Brown	DWSC	-58	58	46	104
61st	3676	G Marshall	DWSC	60	52	(DNF)	112
62nd	4853	Martin Allen	Bewl Valley SC	55	(DNC)	DNC	118