GP14 Midland Area Championships at Staunton Harold Sailing Club

by Matt Thursfield 23 Apr 2013 22:52 PDT 20-21 April 2013

The weekend of 20th/21st April, saw the second event of the Craftinsure sponsored GP14 Grand Prix circuit. With a reasonable forecast, it was a great sight to see 28 boats on the startline, preparing themselves for the first beat into the slowly building breeze, the fleet having rigged with a maximum of 12mph in mind. Chocks in, the fleet were ready.

As many expected, the blackflag was needed to keep bows behind the line for all races over the weekend, several boats over the course of the six races being pulled after early starts. The beats were challenging to read every time, the wind coming from the left of the two prongs of Staunton reservoir, resulting in an extremely competitive weekend of racing from 1st to 28th, places gained and lost on almost every beat. Places too were up for grabs as the spinnaker legs took the fleet all over the reservoir on tight reaches, broad legs & runs; certainly not follow my leader courses.

The results of the weekend really tell the story much better than any long winded account of race by race place changes. Six races, six different winning boats - it says a huge amount about the competitiveness of the GP racing at the moment - each had to battle to their race wins, only one boat leading from start to finish.

• Race 1 was won by Andy Tunnicliffe, crewed by Chris Robinson
• Race 2 brought home by Richie Bennett & Emily Cole-Evans
• Race 3 victors were Rich Instone & Jim Toothill
• Race 4 bullet went to Dave & Seonaid Young
• Race 5, a race win for Mike & Liz Senior
• Race 6 went to Sam Watson & Andy Hunter

It was consistency that gave Mike & Liz the event, sailing their HD powered Boon hull. All six results in the top 4 taking them to the top of the standings, ahead of Andy Tunnicliffe & Chris Robinson, third taken by Richie Bennett & Emily Cole-Evans, fourth were Dave & Seonaid Young.

Lead Silver fleet boat was helmed by Eleanor Davies, crewed by James Croxford with 3 top seven finishes. Leading the Bronze home were Rich & Nigel Pepperdine, the father and son team also taking first home boat.

As for lead Youths, it was a dominant display from Sam Blocksidge & Mark Fleming coming home in 5thplace overall. Richard Instone was the winner of the Richard Estaugh trophy, a timely reminder of four years since Richard's passing.

The month of May sees the GP14 Inlands across at Foremark Reservoir near Burton(DE65 6EJ) on 4th/5th May. Entries are pre-entry only via the GP14 website. Entries on the day are very likely to be refused. The next Midland Bell Event is May 12th at Midland Sailing Club.

Huge thanks to all at Staunton for their most welcoming attention to detail throughout the weekend, the team on the water being matched by the support in the Galley and the bar on the Saturday evening. A great start to the 2013 Craftinsure Grand Prix.

Overall Results:

Pos	Fleet	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1st	Gold	14132	Mike Senior	Liz Senior	South Staffs SC	2	2	3	‑4	1	3	11
2nd	Gold	14021	Andy Tunnicliffe	Chris Robinson	Royal Windermere YC	1	5	2	‑7	2	7	17
3rd	Gold	13711	Rich Bennett	Emily Cole‑Evans	South Staffs SC	‑12	1	9	9	4	4	27
4th	Gold	14097	Dave Young	Seonaid Young	Blithfield	(DNF)	4	7	1	10	5	27
5th	Gold	14082	Sam Blocksidge	Mark Fleming	South Staffs SC	11	3	5	6	5	‑12	30
6th	Gold	14118	Richard Instone	Jim Toothill	Blithfield	8	(BFD)	1	14	7	2	32
7th	Gold	14119	Ian Willis	Keith Dutton	South Staffs SC	3	6	13	5	9	‑15	36
8th	Gold	13710	Sam Watson	Andy Hunter	South Staffs SC	7	9	11	‑13	11	1	39
9th	Silver	13946	Eleanor Davis	James Croxford	South Staffs SC	15	7	‑17	3	12	6	43
10th	Gold	14039	Peter Jacques	Peter Tate	Chase SC	4	(BFD)	6	2	21	10.5	43.5
11th	Gold	13417	Chris White	Richard Booths	South Staffs SC	5	12	4	‑17	15	8	44
12th	Silver	13838	Justin Smith	Adam McGovern	Derwent Reservior SC	10	‑13	8	12	8	9	47
13th	Gold	14112	Matt Thursfield	Sarah Allen	Chelmarsh	9	10	16	10	6	‑17	51
14th	Silver	14032	Neil Davies	Adam Froggatt	Chase SC	6	‑18	18	11	13	10.5	58.5
15th	Bronze	13949	Richard Pepperdine	Nigel Pepperdine	Staunton Harold SC	14	‑20	10	20	3	14	61
16th	Gold	13803	Paul Owen	Alan Jone	South Staffs SC	13	14	12	8	14	‑16	61
17th	Silver	14051	Chris Beddow	Chris Cokk	South Staffs SC	‑21	17	14	15	19	13	78
18th	Silver	14018	Ed Dutton	Rich Hales	South Staffs SC	18	11	19	‑21	17	18	83
19th	Bronze	13785	Nicky Robinson	John Robinson	Staunton Harold SC	‑22	19	22	16	16	19	92
20th	Bronze	13727	Tim Davies	Mark Collingwood	Chelmarsh	24	8	20	‑26	20	25	97
21st	Bronze	13778	Megan Hicklin	Hayley Ramadhar	South Staffs SC	20	16	15	24	(DNF)	23	98
22nd	Silver	13446	Mike Heaney	Paul Heaney	Staunton Harold SC	16	22	‑23	22	18	22	100
23rd	Bronze	13478	Duncan Greenhalgh	Colin Quint	Derwent Reservior SC	23	15	(DNF)	18	24	24	104
24th	Bronze	13894	Will Hawkins	Sam Thompson	South Staffs SC	19	‑23	21	23	22	21	106
25th	Bronze	14072	Darrell Sleep	Charles Saunders	Staunton Harold SC	(BFD)	21	25	19	23	20	108
26th	Silver	13859	Derek Fleming	Matthew Bates	South Staffs SC	17	(DNF)	24	25	25	26	117
27th	Bronze	13407	John George	Aileen Barnett	Staunton Harold SC	25	24	26	27	(DNF)	DNS	131
28th	Bronze	13260	David Ewbank	Kamran Ewbank	Staunton Harold SC	26	25	27	28	(DNS)	27	133