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The final event of the
2018 racing Programme
was again a TT as part of
Grafham Cat Open
on October 20-22nd.
Third time lucky
(after two attempts at Grafham Opens were blown off the water) we had
Indian Summer sunshine with light-moderate and easily sailable SW breeze. Grafham
again gave excellent racing, and again we shared the course with a big Sprint fleet (with a
usefully-separate bottom mark.) Catapult with eight helms was the third
biggest fleet on the Open
Event.
The club set their usual rectangular course, with a long beat and flat
run, and two shorter tight reaches, with an additional last mark so that the
Sprint fleet separated at least a bit in the short beat to the
committee boat through the start-finish line.
(Above:
inching towards the Race 1 start in the light breeze.) (All
photos from Syd Gage's on-board camera)
In Race 1 Stuart Ede was early to the line, bore away
and tried a port-end start, but this
went
disastrously, having to cross behind the fleet; however this took him out to the
right where he gained from good pressure and lifted back to third by
the top mark. Avoiding the
congested starboard end
pack by going low and fast, Gareth Ede got away up the
beat. Paul Ellis climbed to windward, chased closely by Syd Gage. Behind, Chris
Phillips had good upwind speed to move away from the rest.
Paul pulled up on Gareth, until he battle
between themwas unfortunately ended on lap 2 by a Sprint 15
running into the back of Paul on the run, despite his being the right-of-way boat. The precious
seconds lost let Gareth to get ahead, and John Terry slip past into
second, held to the finish, with Chris fourth. Stuart missed the gate starting upwind for the second lap
but his upwind speed let him recover and take Alastair Forrest back
again for fifth, and Syd Gage had the first of their battles, taking the
other places.
In
Race 2 from a
tight starboard pack start Gareth was fast away but hit a hole in
the breeze to the right allowing the others to come up, with Chris again
fast up wind with his Dacron sail. Paul Ellis characteristically lifted
to windward from Committee end of the start to battle with Gareth, with
Mike Gough following him to leeward. John, blanketed at the
start, elected to go
far out to the right on the first beat,
followed by Syd, which paid dividends, in an early lead for John, with Paul and Gareth second and
third.
Syd stayed with them after a good first beat until turning
just too early onto the lay line and putting in extra tacks, but
caught up downwind, Alastair and Stuart close.
On lap 2, John and Paul continued from the gate up the lefthand
side of the beat, and Gareth seized the opportunity to go out to
the right where there was still better wind, leapfrogging into
first place.
(Right: Syd Gage (camera) chases Chris Phillips down
the long flat run.) |
|
On
lap 3, Gareth again went right on the beat but this time found a wind
hole and slumped back to third behind John and Paul. Worryingly the rest
of the fleet benefited from a wind shift and started closing in on
Gareth. John, Paul and Gareth held 1st, 2nd and 3rd to the finish. Chris
Phillips was characteristically fast upwind wind threatening the front boats. Syd Gage's downwind speed caught Alastair, to battle with Chris, but they were pushed
away from the mark
on the end of the run by a pack of downwind Sprints,
letting Alastair through, but Chris' upwind speed lifted
him back to fourth.
In Race 3, following back to back, John Alastair and Stuart picked the port end advantage but in the mixed
fleet with the faster Prindle and Dart 18, getting across the starboard
pack was risky.
John Terry, hitting the line on the gun, made it across and Alastair was able to duck
beneath two bigger boats, but Stuart was caught by them and then the
whole pack
of Catapults. John and Alastair continued out to the right,
gaining well. John took the lead., with
Paul, Gareth and Alastair hot on his heels.
Alastair got past Gareth on the run , into third, but on lap 2, Gareth
climbed back past Alastair and then Paul, with John in his
sights Up the beat on lap 3, Gareth climbed to windward of John.
On the port tack across to find the lay line for the top mark,
John was caught by a starboard Sprint 15, and lost ground
to Gareth, who held the lead to the finish.
The others came up downwind, and Stuart tore in from the
top reach to carry over Alastair to take fourth.
|
(Above: Stuart crosses ahead
of Alastair, Race ) |
On
Sunday the wind was due to pick up in the WSW, but did not build beyond
light-moderate, providing easy racing but with gains during the stronger
bursts.
On each lap, the long downwind leg had the challenges of
deciding when to gybe with the breeze shifting a few degrees
each way, as well as avoiding the Sprint fleet in laps two and three.
(Below: John Terry tacks ahead of Syd (camera) as Stuart Ede
comes across at speed, Race 4.)
Upwind,
by the second lap in each race the Catapults were again catching the big
Sprint fleet. Although it was hard to pick the best upwind course, most
Catapults continued out left and then put in a long port board along the
shore (not suffering any blanketing from the shore) but with the risk of
meeting a pack of Sprints on the starboard coming to the
mark, needing to duck below them or risk being blanketed.
Downwind,
the Sprints tacked (without obvious advantage) but this meant a
group might be coming into the downwind mark on starboard when
the Catapults approached on port running dead downwind.
In Race 4 Stuart got away from the pack of
starboard starters, and a good choice of tacks placed him second at the top mark
behind Gareth. John Terry was forced to tack out right, cahsed
closely by Syd. Stuart defended his position down-wind from
John, with Syd close behind, holding this around the second lap
Syd arriving at the turn at the
downwind mark with a useful lead over Paul and John, holding this across
the tight reach and into the final short beat.
However they were able
to crowd up on him, and Paul could hold him out wide and grab the second, with
Stuart just
holding off
John.
(Right: Alastair chases Stuart downwind, not able to
dent his lead, towards the line of Sprints ahead.) |
|
By
Race 5, following back-to-back, the breeze had picked up,
with benefits to be gained up the left hand side, but the choice
remained difficult,
as there were bursts of good wind blowing in
from the west, along the shore west of the windward mark, and a header
along the south shore to be taken into account. The starboard end by the
committee boat was becoming more crowded with a clashing of plastic and
aluminium (but no obvious 360'.) Paul continued his consistent strategy
of coming in at the starboard end behind the pack, confident that he
could then climb fast to windward and meet the front boats as they came
across.
Gareth started fast further down the line getting away well, into a lead.
John, also fast away, got behind a group of Sprints, and tacked early
getting clear air lifting him on lap1, but he was not able to hold out
against Gareth and Paul. Behind, Syd came fast upwind to threaten
Alastair on lap 2, but coming across on port tight on the mark met a
wall of Sprints on starboard, pushing him away below and past the mark,
then having to gybe round to avoid the boats streaming down the reach.
Alastair kept ahead of Stuart to the last mark, but Stuart hauled up on
him in the last short beat to the line to take fourth by half a
boat-length. Chris and Syd dead-heated for sixth.
(Below: the crowded start for Race 5 )
For
Race 6, the starboard end pack was even more crowded
and Chris was forced across the line at the committee boat. John bore
away for a very fast start, getting well out in front. Gareth with a
poor start was down in sixth at the windward mark, but never one to turn
down a challenge, clawed his way back up to third over the next lap and
a half, overtaking first Chris, then Alastair and Stuart.
A good choice of tacks on the left of the beat on lap 3 saw Gareth make
up significant ground on John and overtake Paul. He
pushed John hard down the final run, and John nearly threw away his
narrow lead on the reach by heading towards the wrong mark. He just
managed to hold off Gareth to the finish, only to find he had been over
the line bearing away at the start!
Alastair Forrest, Gareth Ede and John Terry, and Syd's video.
RESULTS
Rank |
Helm |
R1
|
R2
|
R3
|
R4 |
R5 |
R6 |
Total |
Nett |
1st |
Gareth Ede |
1 |
(3) |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
8 |
5 |
2nd |
Paul Ellis |
3 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
14 |
11 |
3rd |
John Terry |
2 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
(9UFD) |
21 |
12 |
4th |
Stuart Ede |
5 |
(6) |
5 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
26 |
20 |
5th |
Alastair Forrest |
(6) |
5 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
29 |
23 |
6th |
Chris Phillips |
4 |
4 |
7 |
8 |
6.5 |
(9UFD) |
38.5 |
29.5 |
7th |
Syd Gage |
7 |
7 |
(8) |
8 |
6.5 |
5 |
40.5 |
32.5 |
8th |
Mike Gough |
(8) |
8 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
42 |
42 |
34 |
HANDICAP RESULTS
Rank |
Helm |
R1
|
R2
|
R3
|
R4 |
R5 |
R6 |
Total |
Nett |
1st |
Chris Phillips |
1 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
1.5 |
(9UFD) |
18.5 |
9.5 |
2nd |
Syd Gage
|
2 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
1.5 |
(5) |
16.5 |
11.5 |
3rd |
Stuart Ede |
4 |
3 |
(6) |
1 |
4 |
3 |
20 |
14 |
4th |
Paul Ellis |
3 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
(6) |
2 |
21 |
15 |
5th |
Alastair Forrest |
(5) |
4 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
24 |
19 |
6th |
Gareth Ede |
(8) |
8 |
7 |
7 |
5 |
1 |
36 |
28 |
7th |
Mike Gough |
6 |
7 |
5 |
6 |
(8) |
6 |
38 |
30 |
8th |
John Terry |
7 |
6 |
8 |
8 |
7 |
(9UFD) |
45 |
36 |
Gareth's clear win, counting 5 firsts,
further sealed his season victory for the Jon Montgomery Travelling Trophy for 2018
(TT Leaderboard
.)
Behind, Alastair Forrest and Stuart Ede went into the event just a point
apart, and although Stuart was a clear fourth at Grafham, the narrowest
of margins (a count-back to the number of first, then second, then third,
and finally fourth places in the season!)
allowed Alastair to take the TT second
place.
Stuart also went into the final event on top of the
2018 Handicap
Leaderboard
but
with
only five points covering first three. Chris
Phillips was a clear handicap winner with his upwind speed throughout the
Grafham weekend, ahead of Syd Gage, but they could not displace Stuart
from his second podium place for the 2018 season.
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