7:30am Wednesday 8th September 2010
The sixth and final race of the Mylor Yahct Club Falmouth Boat Construction Series took place on Friday in a fresh Force 4 from the east, writes Chris Davis. A total of 28 yachts competed and there was much to play for: The race, and the series, could be won or lost as a result of one mistake or fluky windshift. And so it proved.
As befits the fastest boat in E fleet, Limelite (Euan Beattie and Charles Wharton) was quickly away in clean air and easily took line honours by some five minutes over Freyja (Jackie Baker) and Alexis (Peter Pope). On corrected time, this lead was reduced to less than one minute, but Euan and Charles had done enough to win the race. The issue was who would come second and potentially deny Freyja the series. It all came down to a tactical error from Freyja, causing a port and starboard close quarter situation with Alexis. Alexis was forced to alter course, Freyja had to do the penalty turns, losing valuable time in the process; and Freyja came third behind Wizard of Clee (Tony Hardman) by just nine seconds on corrected time, with Alexis fourth. This one error meant that Freyja had also lost the series by just one point, over six races, to Limelite. Close racing was also seen in U fleet. The race was dominated throughout by Xanadu IV (Chris Bye) and the Hawk 20 Khamsin (Alan Street) but fluky shifts as the wind went over the wooded slopes on the St Just shore caused skippers to consider their options very carefully. In the end, Xanadu prevailed, beating Khamsin by just four seconds on corrected time: the rest of the boats were some distance behind but third place eventually went to another Hawk 20, Pickwick (Peter Marsden). The series went to the Contessa 26 Mary Boon (John Cruise), who won easily with four firsts and a second, allowing him to discard his result in this race.
The same windshifts caused mayhem in Q fleet: the lead boat at one mark lost six places as he sailed into an impossible-to-predict hole in the wind, and this cost him both race and series. Absolutely maddening, but that's yacht racing. Scoter (Mike Selwood) benefited hugely from this misfortune, as did Little Devil (Roger Browne) and Sucé (Sue Rosevear) and this was enough to settle the race. Scoter also won the series by two points over Rococo (Clive Hoyle).
No such dramas in the Gaffers and Shrimpers. Tidy sailing by John Benge in Grace of St Just allowed him to beat fellow Shrimper Henrietta (Julian Wolfram) by about thirty seconds and so secured him the series with four firsts. Results - E Fleet: Limelite (E Beattie) 1, Wizard of Clee (T Hardman) 2, Freyja (Jackie Baker) 3. U Fleet: Xanadu IV (C Bye), 1, Khamsin (A Street) 2, Pickwick ( P Marsden) 3. Q Fleet: Scoter (M Selwood) 1, Little devil (R Browne) 2, Sucé (Sue Rosevear) 3. G/H Fleet: Grace of St Just (J Benge) 1, Henrietta (J Wolfram) 2, Lady May (Victoria Whitworth) 3.
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