As the named ‘Storm Amy’ approached the UK toward the weekend, there was some concern that the planned events at Lincoln may not take place. However, 12 entrants arrived for the RG65 event on Saturday to an improved forecast and they enjoyed a truly excellent day of sailing in strong winds that topped 30 mph at times. These small boats really showed their versatility in the conditions.
The Lincoln race team of Martyn Aspinall (PRO), Jen Hand and Pete Walters were well prepared with Pete having set courses on the South and East banks in preparation for the anticipated change in wind direction. Racing commenced on the East bank with a 2.5 lap course taking around 11 minutes per race.
After a retirement in race one (which was won by Alan Bennett), John T got to grips with the conditions and scored 3 successive wins. The remaining wins of the day were shared between John T, Toby, Alan and Peter.
The wind frequently swung to a more Northerly direction for periods of time during the racing. This provided great opportunities for positional changes and required an inventive approach to the start line which was selected from various buoys and poles on the bank/jetty and frequently changed between races. The wind eventually did take a more Northerly direction and the final 2 races were conducted on the South bank.
A key factor to success for the skippers was maintaining boat functionality. The attrition rate was high (on boats and competitors) with only 6 boats from the initial 12 being launched for the final race and 5 finishing. Only 2 boats completed all the races without retirement.
At race 14, the event was wide open to winning by the leading three skippers. Alan suffered his fourth retirement in this race however, which scuppered his victory chances. Although Toby maintained his consistently good result record for the final 3 races, John T took 2 wins to take the day on count back from Toby. Congratulations John, hard luck Toby!
John Tushingham’s Ivy ploughing to victory!
Many thanks go to the competitors for turning up on such an off-putting forecast and to Chris for his enthusiasm that ’the boats would cope’. Thank you to Jen for braving the elements as scorer and inputting the results to HMS. Thanks also go to Peter for his invaluable rescue boat handling skills which were tested as he pro-actively moved buoys and collected disabled boats in the strong winds. The day was a great success ….. and we remained dry!
Author: Martyn Aspinal
Final results.