5^th round of the 2ndhanddinghies.com RS200 SW Ugly Tour at Chew Valley LSC – home team win from high calibre fleet.

The 5^th round of the 2^ndhanddinghies.com RS200 SW Ugly Tour at Chew Valley was blessed by late summer sunshine that had crews reaching for the sun cream more than many had during August! Unfortunately wind wise the view from the club in the morning was not so good with a feeble north easterly just moving the flags with the forecast saying it would be southerly all day; not a promising start for the race team!! The words we will postpone and wait had only just been uttered by PRO John Smalley at the briefing when 4-6 knots came in from the east and we were all rushing to get changed.  A high quality fleet of 26 boats from 10 clubs took to water for what turned out to better racing than we probably had a right to expect; the depth of the fleet was shown by Eddie Whitehead finishing one place worse overall than his fine 13^th overall at the 157 boat RS200 Nationals! (But Eddie thought the beer was excellent at Chew!)

Race 1 and left paid very nicely up the first beat; Ben Ainsworth/Rachel Williamson worked the shallow off Little Denny more than most and had a good lead which was never seriously challenged. Behind places changed often with Matt Mee/Emma Norris pulling through to second with Tony/Zach Freer riding the new breeze on the right on the second beat to claim third. With a re jigged course with the wind now SSE race 2 started in a patchy 6-9 knots and it was a hold your nerve race as new breeze kept on filling in unevenly. The right paid on the first beat and John Teague/Louise Fisher led which they held to the finish. The Freer’s won their tussle with Pete Vincent/Charlotte Cotter to claim second; Maria Stanley/Sam Maxfield just getting water on Ben McGrane/Roz Allen right at the death to finish fourth would later prove important.

Race 3 and now the wind had reached south but a little lighter. Chews Nick/Henry Martindale led but McGrane/Allen slipped through to win the race from the Martindale’s with Nick Cherry/Charlotte Lawrence third. The wind now became very soft as the back makers tried to finish and then switched off altogether. After a short wait and with the fleet hedging their bets by being closer to the club house than start line the final race was abandoned.

This left father and son Tony/Zach Freer winners by a point over from Ben McGrane/Roz Allen. To round off a very good day for the Chew’s 200 fleet the Martindale’s won the silver division with Parkstone’s Peter Loretto/Jack Dachu winning the bronze division. Many thanks to Chew for being such good friendly hosts and to the race team for doing a good job to fit in 3 decent races.

There is one event left on the 2ndhanddinghies.com SW Ugly Tour at Starcross YC on Nov 5^th. John Teague/Louise Fisher have blatantly cheated by winning the Tour already with an event to spare (note to self, change rules next year so you have to count last event) with Pete Vincent/collection of small noisy crews pretty secure in second. Richard/Paru Edwards were the big gainers jumping into third overall. BUT it is going down to the wire in the divisions. Chew’s Dave and Jeannie “still looking 30” Oakey in the lead in the silver but club mates the Martindale’s and Parkstone’s Peter Eyre/Nina Norden could catch them with a good finish. Meanwhile Chews (must be something in the water over there) David Sweet and his harem lead the bronze but could easily be caught by Parkstone’s Chris Bower and crews. So play nicely at Starcross; not too much match racing!!

Pete Vincent