Chipstead Scorpions at Grafham Water
by Scorpion Class Captain on 26 Apr 2012
Scorpion sailing action Dave Walker Photography
Four Chipstead Scorpions made the trip to Grafham for their open - joining a fleet of 24 boats for six races over the weekend.
On Saturday the wind started at a nice 10mph but this occasionally picked up a bit as each new black cloud came over, towards the end of the last race a big black cloud came and the wind increased to about 20mph which managed to capsize Janet/Alan and cause Simon/Fiona to drop back the fleet as they got overpowered.
Barry/Rachel managed to overcome earlier new twin pole teething issues and stormed up the fleet to pip Simon/Fiona at the finish. Overnight top Chipstead boat was Barry/Rachel.
After the usual evening of fun and games the wind looked pretty similar on Sunday. In race 4, John/Mel managed to spot that the gybe mark was in a funny place before most people which helped them into third position which sadly they didn’t hold to the finish.
In race 5, Simon/Fiona managed to get the shifts right on the first beat and even managed to overtake the national champion on the final reach into the finish (his twin pole related issue did help a bit though!) to take third place, they celebrated by having a swim just after finishing!!
Overall Chipstead positions out of 24 boats were:
7th – Simon/Fiona
10th – Barry/Rachel
12th – John/Mel
14th – Janet/Alan
All in all everyone had a great weekend (only slightly sullied for Simon/Fiona who’s car and boat got home courtesy of an RAC tow truck having had a brake caliper seize on), if you are interested in joining the Scorpion fleet and attending some of these great opens in the future please have a chat with the Class Captain or any other Scorpion sailor. Click
here for full
Chipstead SC website
If you want to link to this article then please use this URL: www.sail-world.com/96521
