RS Feva Inland Championships 2011 Fotoboat
RS Feva UK Inland Championships 2011 was held at Draycote Water Sailing Club over the weekend of 11th to 12th June.
A tale of revenge, drought and dash as Matt Whitfield and Scott Wallis retain their Inlands title in the 50 boat fleet. Day one followed the declaration of drought conditions and was gorgeous sailing albeit with some weighty shifts. Eyes out of the boat won every time over the alternative. Day two saw the drought postponed for a day but at least the wind was still playing ball.
A pattern may be developing. Matt and Scott (previously with Gareth Vines) start a regatta like a scalded cat a scram from the off. Owen Bowerman and Charlie Darling have a yawn and realise belatedly that the off has already occurred and they’d better get a shifty on upon which they do, staging the most amazing comebacks. At the Nationals, Owen and Charlie pulled it off. Here they pulled it back to a tiebreak but Matt and Scott had it not even on the countback as all was still square but on the best discard! Wow!
Third place still didn’t go to mere mortals as Morgan Peach and Herbie Harford weren’t exactly dropped and could have taken it on the last race. Still, their worst result was a poorly fourth! The other choccies went to Cathy Lear and Francine Counsell – fourth (phenomenal result for these ex CNS squaddies in their first regatta of the year – team racing you see and a bit of maturity/experience keep them very fast!), Robert Baddeley and James Taylor fifth (never out of it), and Anna Prescott and Jess Eales sixth (make them consistent and they’ll start blowing holes in the very front of the fleet!).
Spot prizes went to Courtney Bilbrough and Orla Mitchell for generally sailing heroically and Jane and Joan Furness for top Draycote Water SC boat. Perhaps deserving of a prize was the boat that retreated to the beach to fix a shroud pin that had sheared and was still there when the start went, on the way out to the start had the rudder downhaul pull out (boy can spectra knots compress and squeeze through tiny holes!) and so sailed the entire race (F4’ish) with helm having to steer with both hands due to rudder being half up as it wouldn’t stay down and the crew doing both main and jib sheet and still almost cracking the top two-thirds of the fleet!
As ever Draycote were superb hosts in all departments of club activities and special thanks are needed for Andrew Weeden and his race management team – Good Job – as the Hoff says.
