Solo End of Season Champs at Draycote Water Sailing Club
by Claire H Clark 31 Oct 2006 23:50 PST
28 October 2006
The Championship season for the Solo Class concluded at Draycote Water SC on 28th October 2006 with the End of Season Championship sponsored by Speed Sails.
A total of 82 competitors gathered from far and wide on a mostly overcast day. During the briefing the SW wind was a moderate Force 2-3 but by the time the competitors had launched someone somewhere had turned on the fans as the wind increased to a Force 3-4.
Race 1 got underway cleanly with lots of line bias. Norman Byrd led the first race before losing the lead to Kevan Gibb. Gibb was eventually overtaken by Cliff Crawshaw who was revelling in the conditions and held on to win the race. Ian Clingan who had been over the line at the start and restarted pulled through to finish 3rd. Byrd fell back to finish 4th. Steve Broom sailing a 10 year old wooden Gosling finished 5th.
At the start of Race 2 the wind had steadied at a good Force 4 with occasional gusts of 5 during the race to provide lots of exhilarating off wind planing. Gibb and Byrd had a blinding start, from what turned out to be the wrong end! Alister Morley started at the committee boat end and blasted off (apparently with blinding upwind speed) and was never seen again. Ian Clingan profited from Crawshaw being hit by a gust at the gybe mark to take 2nd. Crawshaw recovered well to finish 3rd. Richard Pye of the home club finished 4th with Steve Ede 5th.
It was tight going into the final race as Clingan had a 3,2, Morley had a 6,1 and Crawshaw 1,3
The race started in the lightest wind of the day but still enough to plane on the reaching legs.
Morley led for much of the race before being ground down by Clingan (who needed a 1st to win the event). Gibb was 3rd, Byrd was 4th and Crawshaw was 5th.
This was Ian Clingan’s first big solo event, a very welcome newcomer to the fleet and one that we hope to see again.
Thanks to everyone at Draycote Water SC for organising the event and making the event run smoothly. Thanks to Speed Sails for their sponsorship and generously provided prizes. Thanks to Fotoboat for capturing the action!
See you all there at Draycote again next year – put the date in your diary now – Saturday 27th October 2007
Overall Results:
1st Ian Clingan 4566 (Corus/Melton Mowbray)
2nd Alister Morley 4587 (Salcombe YC)
3rd Cliff Crawshaw 4654 (Littleton SC)
4th Kevan Gibb 4517 (Largo Bay YC)
5th Norman Byrd 4538 (Draycote Water SC)
6th Richard Pye 4587 (Draycote Water SC)
7th Steve Broom 4071 (Spinnaker SC)
8th Steve Ede 4528 (Ardleigh SC)
9th Jon Clarke 4712 (Draycote Water SC)
10th Chris Brown 4727 (RYA)