Following all the post match billing, the Red Bull Tide Ride had a lot to live up to. In the event it far exceeded expectations, not just for the winners who went away with cash, but from all those who took part. The race format worked brilliantly with short sharp races making the crews sail flat out for 20 minutes, on the water judging resolving disputes on the spot with 270-degree penalties and a tight two-gated course keeping the boats tightly packed. It was all action with good starts and staying clear of the traffic the recipe for success.
Saturday was the qualification series. The 22 entries were seeded and split into 5 flights
that raced each other in a round robin. The
top 20 boats would qualify for
With sunshine and a moderate breeze, conditions for the qualification series were spot on. 6 of the 10 round robin races were completed before a falling tide made the pitch unplayable. The racing was amazingly close with a few of the top seeds struggling to justify their ranking. Many were the scalps taken by the lower lights during some epic battles and by the end of the day it was great to see Don and Kate Forster near the top of the leader board and top two finishes for Dan Parsons and Leaky. Of the top seeds, Matt Searle and Rich Bell had a good day along with Dave Hayes and Sean Dwyer but Euro and Nat champ Matt Snedker struggled to keep his nose clean and had been dragged into some hand-to-hand fighting at turning marks.
After a storming red bull fuelled party, Sunday morning greeted the quarter finalists with a fresher breeze and more sunshine. The races were now sudden death and it was evident that the top seeds were going to give it their all. Race 1 saw Tim Fells and Dave Cunningham ease through comfortably and in Race 2 Sneddie showed he had remembered the fast buttons to push Matt and Rich all the way to the line.
So the line up for the semi had the top four seeds plus the ever-combative Mark Barnes and Simon Nelson, Olympic ringer Hugh Styles, the very quick Don and Kate, Alan Davis and former class front-runner Matt Flint. Taking advantage of the strong tide running across the course, Mark set the early pace on the three-lap course. Sneddie, Searlie-boy, Dave, Don and Hugh were locked into the qualifying slots and as the kites were hoisted on the final run this looked like the finishing order. However, it’s never over till the fat lady sings and she was barely clearing her throat. Tim and Matt F, rounding in the last two places, jybed away into more pressure and came back into the gate on starboard and well in the action. Forcing the pack to jybe they then jybed away again to hook back into the new breeze. Places were now incredibly tight from third down (Searlie-boy and Dave were clear away) and every jybe brought a new port starboard incident. Sneddie and Hugh were keeping the judges very busy and were sucking other boats into their battle. With 50 yards to go it was too close to call. Mark had extricated himself to the starboard lay line and nicked over third, Tim slipped in on the committee boat for fourth followed by a raft of boats from which Simon and Matt Flint emerged to take the final two places. It doesn’t get any closer !
The final therefore was between the teams ranked 2,3,4,8,9 and 12. Of these Matt and Rich had not lost a race and were clearly the bookies favourites. However, it was a sudden death race with the top three taking the prize money and anything can happen when the pressure is on. With the course moved close to the shore the start / finish line was 20 metres off the beach – brilliant for the spectators. The Red Bull party truck was pumping out the music and Richard Parslow was commentating in his own uniquely acerbic way. Game on!
Tim and Dave led off the start, straight legging it up the first beat. Following them fast was a jury boat waving a red flag. Not for the first time over the weekend they had been sucked into the Mark Barnes vortex at the start and had a 270 to complete before the next mark. So Simon and Sandy led round the top mark with Matt and Rich rolling Tim for second. Tim jybed early and with Simon took pressure down through the gate while the fast charging Matt Flint and Simon West managed to sail Matt and Rich out at the gate much to his displeasure (not sure if he’s calmed down yet). Up the second beat Tim closed down on Simon and hoisted on his transom only to get another red flag for touching the mark. So, at the start of the final lap, Simon and Sandy had an 8 boat length lead from Tim and DC with Dave and Sean right on their back bumper. The breeze was really breaking up now and Tim and DC managed to steal some distance to get within striking distance of Simon as the kites went up for the last time. And as they hoisted the breeze came on strong making the last run an absolute screamer. With money at stake both teams were hanging out by their toenails. Simon was first to jybe for the line and Tim elected to go on a few more lengths to attack the favoured committee boat end. With both boats arrowing down to the line straight at the spectators it was too close to call. Had Tim and DC pulled it back or would Simon and Sandy take the bullet? Gun smoke flew into the air and the winners were obvious. Simon and Sandy erupted with jubilation as they screamed across the line.
It was a brilliant finale to an absolutely brilliant event and full credit to Simon Nelson who got the class invited and then went on to take the top prize of 300 smackers. Not bad for an old man and a performing bear!
We will be back!!
Results:
1st Simon Nelson and Sandy Ramus
2nd Tim Fells and Dave Cunningham
3rd Dave Hayes and Sean Dwyer