GKO RS Feva Grand Prix & Inlands at Northampton Sailing Club

51 RS Fevas arrived at Northampton Sailing Club for the Inland Championships & final GKO Grand Prix event of 2009. This event was also the final selection event for some of the sailors vying for winter squad places. The boats launched into what at first appeared to be a lovely F4 – 12-15kt. As the first race got underway ‘Little Miss Weather’ ( LMW )let her modesty shawl slip and big ears and teeth were becoming visible and she started nipping the inexperienced around the ankles.

By the end of play on Saturday Vikki Payne and Steffi Orton had stomped all over the results. A 1,4,1 was nothing to sniffed at! They would have been closely followed by Jack Hawkins and Chris Thomas had they not seen a) a splendid first race result blown by the dreaded OCS acronym and a probable race win (by a very short head) blown when they decided to opt for an unneeded extra lap.

Other news worthy results were from National & European Junior Champions Owen Bowerman and Charlie Darling sitting pretty after 2 races with 2 x 3rd but a splashy 22 in addition; Rob Baddeley and James Taylor with almost identical problems with a 2,OCS, 8 run, Meg Backhouse and James Penty just ripping up past form to make good on the promise that has been lingering around all summer with 8,8,7.

Sunday was glorious and sunny but ‘LMW’ was hoping everyone was fooled by the pleasant display in the windbreak behind the trees. Only the smart realised that with plenty of whitehorses to be seen when looking downwind it was surely a fools breeze. Jack & Chris bore away at the wind line, popped the kite and whilst Jack was cooly standing up and facing backwards to lock the rudder down properly the boat was astonishingly already on a flat out plane approaching light speed. Sadly for everyone, the first race was abandoned when in the absence of the guide boat the whole fleet went around the wrong windward mark. By the re-start of that race, it was honking properly. The Race Officer and rescue teams were stretched to the limit but finish the race they did. Power sailing, survival, swimming practice, etc it was. It was also quite possible the most exhilarating day ever in the class. There were some popped masts and the lucky two managed to rig spares by the last race. The RO wisely brought everyone ashore to allow the wind to moderate. When it all restarted at 2 pm the wind looked adorable but ‘LMW’ ready to cause havoc as soon as the race started.

Jack Hawkins and Chris Thomas were absolutely ripping the race track up. The most astonishing was though that last years lightweights (and still not exactly body builders pumped up on steroids) Ruth & Tess Allan were 2nd with Meg Backhouse/James Penty 3rd. More lightweights in Rob & Emma Loveridge were second in the morning and 8th pm. The new team Vikki Payne with the superb Steffi Orton improved from 6th to 4th over the 2 races. Cathy Lear and Francine Counsell were pretty consistent over the two days counting a 3,5,5,10 scoreline.

Winning the merit award was the Home Club duo and first Feva event participators – Sully Illing and Hannah Livingstone in 11th overall. Most improbable result of the weekend (but entirely merited!) was the 7th place by Ben & Tom Oliver on Sunday morning given that they had only started racing in any boat this year!

A huge thank you must go to NSC for running a spendid event & making us feel very welcome after a light & fickle racing season this certainly lived up to being the 2009 grand finale.

Overall Results:

All photos Flying at the GKO RS Feva Grand Prix & Inlands at Northampton © Anthony York / www.chunkypics.co.uk