Felpham Sailing Club Porte Shield and Hago Cup - Races 2 & 3
by James Gerwat 18 Sep 2019 04:58 PDT
15 September 2019
Felpham SC Porte Shield and Hago Cup races 2&3 © Sam Atherton
Porte Shield - Race 3
Sailors were greeted with glorious sunshine but little wind on Sunday 15th September.
22 boats launched anyway, in the hope that the 6 knots that was forecast would materialise.... and it duly did.
A reverse 'P' course was set with a clubhouse start, producing a very long line...most competitors chose the beach end with a few at the pin-end.
However, one or two boats were over the line, dragging the rest of the fleet with them and a general recall was the result.
The new sequence was started briskly and it seemed like déjà vu! This time however, those in the race office could identify the nine boats that weren't over the line at the horn and so the remaining 13 boats were OCS.
Very disappointing for Ross Fisher in his Blaze and Martin & Connor Gillam (Lark) who would have occupied the top two spots.
1st place went to Peter Jones (Blaze), followed by Richard Bentley (Aero 7) and then James Gerwat (Supernova).
Andy Coleman (Laser Radial) came in fourth and is beginning to show some consistency in only their first season.
Hago Cup, Races 2 & 3
The wind increased a little and a few waves began to develop for the second race of the day: Race 2 of the Hago Cup.
Ross Fisher (Blaze), got a great start and took good advantage of the clean air to control the race.
The three boats behind, Peter Jones (Blaze), Martin & Connor Gillam (Lark) & James Gerwat (Supernova) were battling it out for second place. The Lark would pull away from the Supernova on the beat and then the Supernova would catch the Lark on the next three legs....except for the final lap!
The Lark took the second place, 40 seconds on corrected time behind Ross Fisher.
Peter Jones was 2 seconds behind the Lark and the Supernova 1 second behind the Blaze.
Richard Bentley (Aero7) was fifth,and sixth place was shared by Richard Ganley (Blaze) and Josh James (Topper).
The final race of the day was Race 3 of the Hago Cup.
Three or four boats had the pin-end to themselves and so started on port unchallenged.
The Supernova (James Gerwat) benefited the most, crossing in front of the whole fleet and was first to the windward mark, closely followed by Ross Fisher (Blaze). By the end of the first lap, the Blaze went ahead of the Supernova and the next Blaze (Richard Ganley) was closing the gap.
Eventually Richard Ganley passed the Supernova which was now being caught by Peter Jones (Blaze) and the Aero 7 of Richard Bentley.
Ross Fisher continued to extend his lead at the front with the other two Blazes trying to reel him in to no avail.
Richard Bentley passed the Supernova and the RS200 (Abi & Sophie Bentley) was not far behind.
The final lap saw the Supernova regain its position on the water, just ahead of the Aero (the wind had dropped) and the RS200 was just behind.
Once again, the Topper of Josh James put in another great performance to finish seventh.
First was Ross Fisher, second James Gerwat, third Richard Bentley
Full results are on the website: felphamsailingclub.co.uk/racing/results