Race Report
You couldn’t have had a bigger contrast in conditions from the last event at Hayling; light winds, sunshine and lots of tide greeted the Fireball fleet for the second of the Golden Dolphin series.
The weekend promised some tough competition with 3 previous World champions and 2 National champions all taking part.
The first 2 races on Saturday were dominated as predicted by the usual suspects, Vince Horey putting in a guest appearance with Vyv Townend and taking both races whilst looking very comfortable. However Tim Rush & Richard Wagstaff were always there, putting in a safe 3,2 as did Tom Gillard & Bernie Gammon. Local Father and son team Pete and Tom Kyne showed both good speed along with inside information on the tide to mix it with the front runners.
It was an early start on Sunday but even with a light breeze the fleet got away on time, this time it was Tim & Richard who got both the start and the tide right taking the first and second races of the day. Vince & Viv followed in behind but a slip up in race 2 put them down the fleet. With the light winds and strong tide there were a number of errors of judgement at the windward mark resulting in much ducking and diving and a lot of turns.
The wind built through the day and a few more faces started appearing at the front of the fleet in the afternoon races, Simon & Tom Maskell put in a very impressive 2nd and Dave Wade & Tim Hartley got their act together to also put in a 2nd place. However it was Tim and Richards last race 3rd that meant they beat Vince & Viv on count back to take the overall prize.
The event was a cracker and with 17 boats enjoying the champagne conditions it bodes well for the next event in the calendar this weekend at Notts County.
Final Results after 5 races
1st 15093 Tim Rush / Richard Wagstaff -3 2 1 1 -3 10 4 pts
2nd 15096 Vince Horey / Viv Townend 1 1 2 -8 -4 16 4 pts
3rd 15081 Thomas Gillard / Bernie Gammon 2 3 -5 -4 1 15 6 pts
4th 15091 David Wade / Tim Hartley 4 -5 3 -5 2 19 9 pts
5th 14886 Simon Maskell / Tom Maskell (18.0 DNC) (18.0 DNC) 4 2 8 50 14 pts
6th 15100 Dave Hall / Paul Constable -6 6 -8 3 6 29 15 pts
7th 14860 Pete Kyne / Tom Kyne -7 4 6 -11 5 33 15 pts
8th 15070 Philip Popple / John Pliat 5 7 -9 7 (18.0 DNF) 46 19 pts
9th 15066 Mark Maskell / Nigel Sheppard (18.0 DNC) (18.0 DNC) 7 6 7 56 20 pts
10th 15021 Richard Mansfield / Dawn Jasper 9 8 -13 9 (18.0 DNC) 57 26 pts
11th 14801 Rick Cornes / James Goodfellow 8 9 10 (18.0 DNC) (18.0 DNC) 63 27 pts
12th 15097 Alan Carter / Dave Pannell 10 -11 -11 10 9 51 29 pts
13th 14885 Fiona Gray / Jamie Mayhew -12 10 12 -13 10 57 32 pts
14th 14774 Roger Etherington / Jo Adams -14 12 -14 12 11 63 35 pts
15th 14991 Andy Robinson / Nico de Duque 11 -14 -15 14 12 66 37 pts
16th 14922 Barrie Winship / Rose Winship 13 13 (18.0 DNC) (18.0 DNC) 18.0 DNC 80 44 pts
17th 14787 Peter Smurthwaite / TBA (18.0 DNF) 15 (18.0 DNC) 18.0 DNC 18.0 DNC 87 51 pts
