That’s it, the 2019 TT is done. Going into the last event the winner was already secured, 2nd was almost safe but 3rd and 4th were vulnerable to a few people who would be adding their 5th score to count towards the series.
In the end all of those 4 places remained unchanged but there was some significant movement in the places thereafter.
15 Skippers took part in the final round of the 2019 TT at Two Islands on Saturday with a number of people needing good scores to get them to move up the overall standings.
Don’t let this picture bluff you about the conditions, it is from a year or two ago
The forecast was for light winds and rain, and that forecast proved to be very accurate. At least the wind direction was quite consistent, so everyone only needed to deal with the big wind shifts caused by the houses, trees, islands etc. Nicely challenging.
it is safe to say that Tobias Laux turned up intent to repeat his performance from the recent National Championships, but he met some stiff opposition from a number of others.
Another very notable appearance on the water was Clive Cockayne’s Sith sporting a single sail rig, which his own admission, was a shot in the dark. It proved to power the boat very well and I have no doubt that we will see it again after some minor adjustments to the fullness.
Sadly we do not have any pictures of the sailing as everyone was on the water for the single fleet racing, and our resident photographer was off at another event.
At the end of the day, John Tushingham took the event win after 20 races with 30 points, followed by Tobias on 44 points and Alex Cory on 52.
It seems to have been a long time coming but the RG65 Nationals weekend finally came and participants descended on Gosport for what was forecast to be a hot and sunny weekend. Many took the opportunity to tune up on Friday in a good breeze with a number of boats launching for the very first time.
Saturday
morning saw bright sunshine but a breeze of little more than 5 knots largely
easterly but with sufficient shifts to keep race Officer Chris Durant on his
toes and everyone de-camping to control from the South Bank where things kicked
off with the skippers briefing.
Skippers
and visitors were welcomed to Gosport especially our friends from overseas, Belgian
Christel Cracco, Frenchman Gerard Chauvel, Swiss Tobi Laux and Martin Gray from
the US.
After a short rejig of the course Heat 1 B Seeding got the event under way and local knowledge seemed key as Nigel Brown swept to victory followed by Tobi Laux and Alex Cory. Heat 1A with John Tushingham not starting because of repair work, saw Phil Holliday home first from Peter Moore and Liz Tushingam.
Race 2 was
to set something of the tone as with the breeze holding pace but continuing to
shift, Graham Elliott showing a clean pair of heels to Tobi and by now the
recovered John Tushingham.
With the
breeze fighting to move more southerly Graham took Race 3 from Mark Dicks and
Peter Moore (Nice new boat going well Peter!)
Alex, John
T and Graham, finishing Race 4 in that order gave a master class in tactical
close racing with Mark, Graham and John T ending the morning’s racing in Race 5
So to lunch
with the points still reasonably close.
Graham from John T, Mark, Alex, Peter M and Christel Cracco having
quietly sailed pretty consistently. At
this stage also worthy of note that there were 4 different designs in the top 6
boats. The lunch break also brought the
fleet back to the North Bank.
It had been
decided that the early post lunch races would be sailed conventionally for the
championship but would also be chosen for 3 races to count towards Bart’s Big
Little Boat Bash. Chris was trying to
keep the courses as consistent as possible in the still 4 – 6 knot range but
with the shifts seemingly moving inevitable more from the South.
During the
course of Races 6 – 8, Martin Gray had clearly got the bit between his teeth
after a couple of relative stinkers earlier taking first in Race 6 and 7 and
second in Race 8 in his brand new Uno which he saw for the first time on Friday. Not surprising then that Martin also became
the fastest timed skipper over the 3 races.
A couple of
general recalls in race 8 led to 30.3 U Flag start but the inevitable urge to
avoid being flagged over the start line brought a 3 way tangle between John
Burgoine to windward of Phil and Graham.
Try as hard as they did to disentangle themselves, it was well over half
a minute before they were able to rejoin the race, and subsequently granted
redress.
Tobi took Race 8 from Martin, Mark and John. Race 9 saw Graham and Phil being promoted back up from B fleet to take second and third behind Tobi in A fleet. The afternoon continued with a little more settled breeze direction but the strength gradually falling away. Race 10 saw Graham win from Phil and Martin whilst Tobi took Race 11 from John, Martin, Clive Cokayne and Graham. This 5th place for Graham would be his second discard and the end of day 1 after 11 races showed Graham with a 12 point cushion over Martin (31), John (33) and Tobi (38).
Sunday
started with bright blue skies although the very light breezes were coming from
everywhere, then falling away completely.
Ken led B fleet away getting a commanding lead only to hit a hole
towards the final windward mark and watch helplessly as the fleet gradually
hauled him in and overtook. After the
completion of the first heat, Chris called a postponement to try and get some
consistency showing in the breeze, although it was to be indicative of the
difficulties that would be faced throughout the day which would lead to several
course changes.
Race 12
went to Tobi, his second consecutive win and his fourth overall. Alex took Race 13 by the end of which
Graham’s lead still looked reasonably secure around the 10 point cushion mark
but there was less than 5 points covering 2nd to 4th
Martin, John and Tobi.
Race 14 and
virtually all thereafter suffered from really tricky shifts and swings in wind
speed but it still looked as if Graham could hold on, especially since at that
stage only 2 more races and the third discard would cut in.
Stinkers
for Martin and John in Race 15 meant the top three were bunching ever closer,
Tobi taking this one from Graham leaving Graham still clear but John and Tobi inseparable.
Race 16
sailed with the third discard coming into play at the end of it. Mark took it from Tobi although a major swing
in the scores was about to take place with Graham discarding his 8th
place, John discarded the 11th from Race 15 but Tobi managed to get
a Race 3 15th place out of the reckoning. 10 points now covered the leading 3 boats but
they were forging further ahead of Martin, Alex, Mark and Christel.
With the breeze continuing to move more Southerly, the beats more directly across the lake became necessarily shorter. Christel started to make a move winning Race 17 from Tobi and John but Graham’s 7th place was enough to change the overall lead. Another win for Christel in race 18 closely followed by Tobi and John meant that it was getting closer than ever and as 3.45 approached, what would inevitably be the last race got under way. Martin led this one home, from Christel, John and Graham but could Tobi hold on to his slender lead.
The answer
was that Tobi’s 7th place was good enough for the event win with net
50, Graham was 2nd with net 54.2 and John third with net 57. Top 6 then all different designs.
Our thanks go to the Gosport club and members for putting on a great event and especially Chris Durant and his merry gang of helpers for keeping the racing ticking over. Stephen Ridgway, Paul Edwards, Richard Filer, Alan Butt, Nick and Christine Ward, John O’Brien, Mike Carter, Mervyn Cook, Tony Millis, Chris Judd, Robert Hobbs, Chris Moore, Trevor Cartwright, Phil Hampson and Tim Rees for their lakeside help, Sue Brown for keeping the kitchen stocked with drinks and cakes, and last but not least, John Smith for organising the event from start to finish. We look forward to our next visit to this great venue.
Mark Dicks – 6th
Christel Cracco – 5th
Martin Gray – 4th
John Tushingham – 3rd
Graham Elliott – 2nd
Tobi Laux – 1st
Our report
finishes with 2 questions, to which the answer to both was, if you were able to
be at the prize giving, emphatic No’s.
Q1 Has
anyone, when considering the applause and acclaim from his fellow competitors,
been a more popular winner.
Q2 If you saw Tobi after the presentation, has anyone been more pleased with their performance and result. After 7 year’s trying he had at last won his first regatta in his home designed, home built and relatively old boat. Just goes to show that persistent time on the water pays off.
Pictures thanks to Sue Brown from Catsails – many more pictures on Sue’s Flickr Pages
So……. you may have noticed, the UK RG65 NCA has a new website.
We have been working to create a new website for some time to make it easier for us to publish information, event details, results etc and here we are, we have taken the plunge and enlivened it.
This is still very much a work in progress so please let us have your comments and suggestions. Just email your ideas and comments to contact@rg65.org.uk.
And don’t forget to “follow” us using the link you will see on the, normally the bottom right, so that you are alerted when we add something to the website
The RG65 UK National Championships take place in Gosport on 14&15 September and the entry window closes on 30 August.
John Smith has published the NOR and online entry is open via the MYA Entry System.
Please note that any entry is only confirmed once payment is received.
For those that are interested the current entry list is as follows.
Mike Kemp Peter Baldwin Wayne Stobbs Phil Holliday Noel Donaldson Gerard Chauvel Martin Gray Nigel Brown Alan Watkinson John Brierley Graham Elliott Neil Westbrook Ralph Wilkinson Chris Forman Ken Binks Mark Dicks Clive Cokayne Christel Cracco Alex Cory Roger Dunklin John Tushingham Liz Tushingham Tobi Laux Colin Moss Trevor Binks Peter Moore
Saturday’s forecast for Round 5 of the TT was at best light and variable. Who says that the wind always blows in Yorkshire. The briefing took place as normal with Derek Priestly arriving just in time to pick up the boat being loaned to him by Michael Parkington, and then the wait started. If there was some wind, it was not suiting the course. PRO John Sharman would get the course reset, only for the wind to die or swing through massive angles.
Racing eventually took place with John Tushingham managing to come to terms with the variable conditions over 14 races taking him to the win with Derek 2nd and Peter Baldwin 3rd. It was great to see a mix of Scurry, Scram, Pocket Rocket, Sith, Sledge and Manta in the top 10.
The forecast for day 2 and TT6 was much the same, possibly even more variable.
Derek hit the road running with a win in the 1st race before having his
mainsheet snapped in race 2 by a rogue whirlwind. In the end this
setback did not not have too much of an impact as he went on to take the
event win, with John Tushingham second and Wayne Stobbs 3rd.
Thanks must go to John Sharman and his team of merry helpers for keeping
things going as best they could under testing conditions.
Thanks also go to Judith and Peter Baldwin for keeping the score sheets
in order and last but not least, Liz Tushingham and the other ladies in
the kitchen for keeping us fed an watered during the weekend.
13 Skippers turned out for the 09:45 briefing from PRO Clive Bardell at Watermead for round 4 of the RG65 TT on Sunday 9 June.
Glassy spots on the lake were an indication that the forecast was
correct, but in the end the wind filled nicely for the day, well, till
the last of the 16 races on the day. Indeed, 16 races were sailed
before the 16:30 cutoff and it is safe to say that the day proved be
good fun for all those competing.
Mrs Tushingham beat Mr Tushingham into 2nd place in race one which clearly upset him as he went on to score 12 wins on the day, tarnishing his overall score with a 2nd place after the 3 discards.
Phil Holliday managed a brace of wins on his way to 2nd overall with John Brierley taking 3rd place on the day.
Great to see the 9 different designs of Rg65 carrying both Swing and
Conventional rigs mixing up the racing proving that there is no one
design that is running away with all the honours.
Well done to the race team at Watermead for running the day so efficiently.
A good entry of 19 boats of which there were 7 different designs competing for round 3 of the RG65 TT at Birkenhead, where we were met with blue skies and a decent breeze of 6 to 8 knots straight down the lake, with all skippers opting for their number 1 rigs to start the days sailing.
We sailed 4 races before a quick cup of tea/coffee (and a piece of cake) with no one skipper quick out of the blocks. Martin Roberts did take 2 out of the first 4 but also scored heavily in the other 2 sailing a borrowed Scram for the day.
Eight races were sailed before lunch and still no one skipper dominated with 5 different race winners and only a few points separating the top 5 boats it was obvious that consistency was going to win the day.
After lunch with the breeze building and skippers going down a rig at some point during the next four races, it was tight to the finish, finally after 17 races it was Martin Roberts who ground out the win on his maiden venture with an RG65 and gave the lad a smile from ear to ear.
We had two lady helms competing at this event, both enjoyed the champagne sailing with Liz Tushingham finishing in a well placed 7th and Susan Parkington 13th.
Thanks must go to Judith Baldwin, Bernie, Neil and Chris Westbrook for their help and not forgetting John Brierley for supplying the scones and Bara brith to have with our tea.
The RG65 circus came to Bournville and what a cracking do!
18 skippers from the length and breadth of the country, Keigthly, Birkenhead to Portsmouth and most places in between. To say Bournville was surprised and delighted was an understatement, there is a burgeoning fleet of RG’s growing there and after seeing how these cracking little boats perform it will grow again. So win win for all.
The wind was a nice top suit breeze from the far end of the lake allowed RO Peter Moore to set a course that used the lake fully in a two lap figure of eight configuration.
There was a good spread of the current designs, Scurry’s, Sledges, Syth’s and the odd Pocket Rocket a mix of carbon and glass hulls, most had swing rigs.
Using the long race format Peter got in 12 races during the day with not too much time out.
John Tushingham lead the way to come out the winner on the day, Clive Cockayne was second, Mark Dicks third and Liz Tushingham fourth.
The racing, as always, was tight throughout the fleet and it was excellent sailing across the board. It can all be wrapped up with that very apt but totally applicable “A jolly good time was had by all” and Bournville is looking forward to the circus coming back again next year
