Noble Marine Comet Trio Mark1 National Championship at Brixham Yacht Club - Day 1

Noble Marine Comet Trio Mark1 Nationals at Paignton Day 1 © Bruce Graeme-Cook

Day 1 of the Comet Trio National Championships held in the spectacular Torbay area sponsored by Noble Marine, was never going to be easy for the race team led by Peter Lytton.

With sunshine and clouds and westerly winds of 2 to 20 knots forecast, competitors were prepared for anything! Peter took his own boat, Peanut, out to the race area with the beach team keeping the 15 competitors onshore until about 45 minutes before the start. The competitors were extremely grateful to the Commodore, Richard Spreckley, who donned a wetsuit and helped boats off and back onto the slippery slope.

Noble Marine Comet Trio Mark1 Nationals at Paignton Day 1 - photo © Tracy Padro

Both triangle/sausage races were postponed during the race sequence because of last minute massive wind shifts and the mark layers were kept busy. Race 1 was led by Bob Horlock, the Class Association Chairman, and his son, Alex, starting at the pin end and keeping out of everyone's way. However most helms judged the port tack across to be advantageous. Those at the front, including Andrew and Caroline McAusland. managed to keep the dying wind around the windward mark, quicker hosting their spinnakers and carrying them to the gybe mark whereas the next group, led by Mike and Jenny Hart, had a frustrating leg, dropping spinnakers and raising them again as the light winds shifted. The wind then filled in from behind, enabling those behind to catch up, creating quite a few position changes. Andrew and Caroline were able to get in front by choosing the right angle to the finish, winning race 1. The race officer wisely decided to shorten course with only one lap completed.

Noble Marine Comet Trio Mark1 Nationals at Paignton Day 1 - photo © Bruce Graeme-Cook

In Race 2, Richard Sallis and Carole Williams were unknowingly over the line and were disqualified. Bob and Alex repeated their strategy of starting at the pin end and going up to the windward mark from there but the McAuslands came in from the other side of the course and overtook them. Adrian Padro and his nephew, Callum, had a good start but fell back as the McAuslands, the Horlocks, the Harts and Karen Wilson and Sue Frost got to the windward mark and were able to pull away from the bulk of the fleet. On the last gybe mark, the mid fleet bunched together as the wind again filled in from behind, with quite a few shouts from competitors trying to establish their rights. Ashley Keniston and Andy Douglas hit the mark and had to do a turn. Race 2 was again won by the McAuslands with the Horlocks coming in second establishing a solid lead into Day 2.

Results after Day 1: