Hadron H2 open meeting at Stewartby Water Sailing Club

Gavin Fleming wins overall - Hadron H2 open meeting at Stewartby Water © Eti Salpeter

On the morning of Friday 17th July Hadron H2 Fixtures Rep Chris Brown flicked open his diary and found it was nearly time for the H2 Class to visit Stewartby Water - this was hugely concerning for South Coast based Chris, not only was this North of the M27 it was even North of the M4! Uncharted territory without a doubt - he packed a case of fine wine for emergencies and wisely set off a day early to ensure a timely arrival.

The two-day event on Stewartby Lake tested the single-handed fleet with highly tactical inland conditions. The wind was notionally from the NNE but appeared to swing around from a number of other directions - including straight down on occasion and varying in strength from very light to really quite fruity, within each race.

The format was four races scheduled on Saturday and two on Sunday and an early getaway for the visitors. Richard Le Mare (sail 202) broke his boat and had to sadly retire to the shore. In the first race Tim Garvin (Sail 184) led from start to finish with Gavin recovering from a bad start and picking his way through the fleet to second, Ian Little (Sail 102) found himself in good order at the end of the first beat after a huge shift and hung onto third.

Second race went much the same way with Tim picking his way through the shifts to the front and Gavin in second before the race officer shortened course to the disappointment of Gavin and relief of Tim and those further back.

For the third race this time Gavin managed to get off the start line in good shape and pick his way through the various shifts and holes. At some stage there was some luffing action, followed by some shouting action, followed by some rotating action. Recollections differ among the luffing/shouting/rotating participants (your correspondent was too far back to confirm anything other than shouting occurred) but Gavin notched up his first bullet, with class newcomer Malcolm Hutchins (Sail 126) second and Tim third.

In the final race of the day the shifts and holes managed to conspire to get most of the fleet to the first mark at much the same time as another huge shift mixed everything up and Gavin this time ended up on the wrong end of things to give Tim another win with Gavin clawing his way back to second and H2 fixtures secretary Chris Brown (Sail 126) third.

The evening ended back at the club with beers and excellent curry consumed before the competitors retired to their tents, campers and accommodation.

Sunday dawned with it all to play for, Gavin had estimated his calorie intake to ensure peak performance, Tim had done the maths to work out what results he required, the rest of us just hoped the wind was a bit steadier. Pre race Breakfast Rolls were consumed. In Race 5 Gavin got away and led to the finish with Malcolm notching up another second following some mid-race mental arithmetic and shenanigans from Tim which came to naught when the race officer sent us round again for another lap. Tim was third.

In the sixth and final race Gavin got away early on following a big vertical downdraft, coming out of nowhere a short way up the first beat, and causing all manner of grief in the fleet. The wind gradually increased during the race before dying away again. Once again Malcolm came in second and Tim third.

Gavin had done enough to take the event by two points from Tim. Class newcomer Malcolm with a really consistent series took third.

All together a great weekend of tactical sailing and convivial company. A huge thanks to Stewartby Water and their members for having us, to the RS300 for allowing us to share the event with their inland champs. But a really special thanks to Richard Hargreaves from the RS300 fleet for setting the meeting up, opening the gate for early arrivals, making breakfast rolls both days for the fleets, preparing and cooking the curry on Saturday night - and astonishingly also managing to compete in the event on both days in his RS300. The H2 class decided with couldn't let this superhuman effort go un-noticed and were pleased to present him with a coveted H2 glass as a mark of our appreciation - and awe!

With that the fleet packed away and were on the road back home mercifully early through the summer weekend traffic. Everyone relieved to be back home before the worst of the traffic built up, although your scribe cannot confirm that fixtures rep Chris Brown actually made it home before sunset but at the time everyone else left he had made much better progress packing his boat way than usual (he had at least made a start!)

Overall Results: