Tight Racing at Rutland and a Sailing First?
The B14 fleet may have only had 5 boats at the Rutland event, but the tight racing and light winds made for exciting sailing and probably a sailing first. Every team both won a race and came last in a race, and with only 8 points separating the boats after the 8 races this has to be a great advert for competitive skiff sailing.
Saturday’s racing was started in winds that were difficult to predict, and that set the scene for the whole weekend. It was a case of getting a clean start and finding the favourable wind. With the wind varying in speed and direction significantly across the course, it was a case of trying to second guess what it would do. The four races on Saturday were all tightly fought, with places changing on almost every leg. Nils Jolliffe & Jon Branch of ‘Raymarine’ had the best of the day with 2 bullets, a 2nd and a 3rd, closely followed by Dave Hayes & Sean Dwyer of ‘Sea Sure’ one point behind. Matt Searle and Rich Bell of ‘Sprint’ had a consistent day counting two seconds and a third.
On the Sunday the boats set out to the race course in a slightly stronger 12-15kts of breeze, but by the time they’d got down to the day’s racing it had dropped off to similar conditions to Saturday. In a reversal of form from the day before, the three teams yet to win a race all did so in the hard fought races, with many places changing right up to the finish line. Matt & Rich had the best of the day with two bullets, but Alan Davies & Alison Wilson were equal on points with them for the day having consistently being up the front of the fleet.
In the final race of the day, it was too tight to call, and everyone knew their overall position would depend on the result. Nils & Jon and Alan & Alison went right up the first beat, hoping to get the breeze filling in from this side. At the windward mark this had proved to be the correct choice and a gap had been created to Mark Barnes & Tom Pygall in 3rd. As the two boats up front swapped places through-out the race, Mark & Tom closed the gap to almost nothing in the dying seconds of the last leg. Having to squeeze through the leeward gate just before the finish line the positions were Alan & Alison leading, with Nils & Jon and Mark & Tom just behind. As the boats gybed for the finish line the way the boats had been lined up was the critical factor. Mark & Tom managed to roll Nils & Jon, who in turn had done the same to Alan & Alison.
With the racing finished the grey matter of the crews turned to trying to work out the points situation. Nils & Jon managed to take first place due to their good set of results on Saturday, with Matt & Rich in second. 1st & 2nd places were taken by boats with North Sails, with last years Ullman’s (now being made by Hyde’s) in 3rd and 4th. All who took part in the weekends racing agreed that this was some of the closest racing they’d taken part in, and are looking forward to the next event in the series at Brightlingsea in April.
1. GBR728 Jolliffe/Branch 2/1/3/1/2/5/4/2 -15
2. GBR725 Searle/Bell 3/2/2/5/1/4/1/4 -17
3. GBR 725 Hayes/Dwyer 1/3/1/3/5/2/3/5 -18
4. GBR 695 Barnes/Pygall 5/4/4/2/3/3/5/1 -22
5. GBR 753 Davis/Wilson 4/5/5/4/4/1/2/3 -23