Draycote Water Sailing Club Bank Holiday Pursuit Race Series
by Jeremy Atkins 1 Jan 2018 22:03 PST
Harrison & Fergus Pye receive Club Champions Trophy from Commodore, Jeremy Atkins © Richard Pye
Draycote Water Sailing Club's annual open bank holiday pursuit race series closed on New Year's Day after two races in quick succession: Boxing Day and New Year's Day.
Before the Christmas races, Millie Irish, in her Optimist, was riding high, having won 3 of the 4 races. But the conditions over Christmas did not suit her and she had two uncharacteristically poor results and ended up in third place overall – still a fantastic achievement for such a young competitor against the assembled might of Draycote Water Sailing Club members and visitors.
The Boxing Day pursuit race was won by Mike Deane and Paul Disney in their Fireball, but second was Harrison and Fergus Pye in their Feva, which lifted them to second overall in the series with one race to go.
Going into the final New Year's Day race, the series was still wide open – any of 5 boats could win – the two junior boats, Nick Bolland in a RS300, Millie's uncle, Greg Irish, in his Laser and Chris Brown in a Solo.
Millie started off with her massive lead, soon to be chased by a brace of Fevas – Harrison & Fergus competing against the girls' team of Katie Byne and Phoebe Jones, who had declined to compete on Boxing Day as a result of over-indulgence the previous day (obviously New Year's Eve had not had quite the same effect on them!). They passed Millie with still some time to go, but it was the girls' team that led the battle of the Fevas. However, the wily not-so-young competitors, Jeremy Davy and Martin Huett in a Flying Fifteen were out to spoil the junior party and finished in front of the Fevas to win the New Year's Day race, with the girls second and the Pyes third.
When the results were calculated for the series, the Pyes came out on top. They are no strangers to winning, with Harrison having already been Tera World Champion. This was their last race together in the Feva and, although they were smarting at being beaten by the girls on the day, they were proud of going out on a high as Draycote Water Sailing Club Champions.
Overall Results: (top five)
1st: Harrison & Fergus Pye: Feva
2nd: Nick Bolland: RS300
3rd: Millie Irish: Optimist
4th: Chris Brown: Solo
5th: Marcellus Pryor: Laser