Brightlingsea SC laid on another great weekend for the B14 fleet on April 27/28. With a forecast of gales on Sunday it was all to play for in the 3 races on Saturday. It was a day when there was a lot of weather around – the gradient was a perfect force 3-4 southwesterly, but it was bringing huge black storms with squalls over force 6 and major wind shifts. Added to this, a high spring tide ebbing against the wind meant the pitch was cutting up a bit rough by mid afternoon.
A high quality fleet of ten visitors joined battle with the strong home fleet for race one. For Dave Hayes and Sean Dwyer the day went from high to low very rapidly. Leading both of the first two races they suffered first from spinnaker problems dropping them down the fleet then a visit to the tide saw their rig shatter as they bounced along the bottom.
By contrast, there were smiles all round for Tim Fells and new front man, David Cunningham. Taking advantage of Hayes misfortune they won the first race and then were the only team to successfully fly their kite through a massive squall in race 2 to take a second bullet. Second place in the last race secured the meeting.
Also going very well were Matt Searle and Rich Bell who have improved again following their 5th place at the 2001 Worlds. They were in and out of the lead in the first two races and sailed an excellent third race to take a well-earned bullet.
The new team of Mark Barnes and Tom Pygall from Whitstable showed they will be right in the frame this year by leading races 2 and 3 before closing out in third overall.
With nothing to play for on Sunday the fleet enjoyed the tolerant hospitality of Brightlingsea by burning off any remaining testosterone in a highly competitive and violent games evening.
Overall:
1st 758, Tim Fells / Dave Cunningham (Grafham)
2nd 725, Matt Searle / Rich Bell (Weston)
3rd 695, Mark Barnes / Tom Pygall (Whitstable)
4th 750, Piers Lambert / Tim Bees (Brightlingsea)
5th 688, Tim Harrison / Jon Ratcliffe (Burnham)
6th 645, Jamie Mears / Gemma Mitchell (Burnham)