Creeksea Phantom Open Meeting
An impressive fleet of twenty boats met to contest the ever-popular Creeksea Sailing Club Phantom Open meeting over the weekend of 4th and 5th July. The weather forecast had looked too good to be true but for once it lived up to its promise with glorious sunshine and an improving breeze all weekend.
The wind direction did however give the crack race officer team under the direction of Edwin Buckley a challenge in setting good starting windward legs but the judicious use of temporary marks and navigation buoys ensured that a variety of courses were set.
Race one saw the fleet catch the last of the ebbing tide to fetch the navigation mark off the Burnham Yacht harbour with home club members Roberts and Ingram being first to round and head back up river against the tide with the fleet strung out behind. Ingram managed to overtake Roberts on the run and led around every subsequent mark. Unfortunately for him this included rounding the final mark the wrong way thus gifting Roberts a race win ahead of Ian Miller from Alton Water.
Race two was held over the same course and this time Lawrence Crispin dominated the race finishing ahead of an in form Miller and Simon Fielden.
After lunch the fleet had to acclimatise themselves to both a slight change in wind direction and a flooding tide over a revised course. In their eagerness to start several sailors misjudged the line and paid the penalty. Race winner Ingram made no mistakes with the course this time and fought his way past Allen Burrell to record another home boat win.
After day one the results were looking close and the big guns in the fleet were looking nervous. An excellent evening ashore with free apres-sail beer and a meal in town was rounded off by the sharing of a specially commissioned birthday cake for the ever young James Case.
Sunday was another glorious day with the breeze resolutely refusing to swing either East or West to give a decisive first beat. So it was that the old favourite course involving a beat to Canewdon was pulled out of the Race Officers armoury of up river courses. Also appearing was a starting gun that ensured the fleet would be in no doubt that they had started!
The first race of the day was won by Crispin ahead of a delighted Doug Conway – making his long journey from the far North worthwhile. Much place changing took place during the race with local boats spotting the opportunity to exploit their Crouch knowledge on the reach back to the club by changing banks and crossing the tide to benefit from strong wind and slacker water on the North shore.
Race two was held back to back and was won by Simon Fielden who appeared to have shrugged off both his hangover and his past loathing for anything less than a gale!
After lunch the final race of the day was sailed over a shorter course and multiple laps as the fleet had by now had enough of close tacking amongst local day boat classes and racing yachts whilst resisting the attentions of everything from passing Sunseekers to ex-RNLI lifeboats.
As if to oblige the wind picked up to give onshore spectators a real treat of Phantoms in their element, blasting through reaching legs with many a grin to be seen. The placing of the windward mark also gave rise to some place changing and the odd swim as gusts dropping over the riverbank caught the unwary. Crispin and Burrell really came to life in this race and battled around the course to finish ahead of Fielden.
With a consistent set of results with nothing less than a fifth and three race wins Crispin won the Open ahead of a very happy Fielden. Burrell took third spot and Ingram fourth.
Notable achievements lower down the fleet were acknowledged at the prizegiving with Mark Ingall of the home club being congratulated for a determined performance in his classic non self draining wooden boat with tin rig having completed all the races on Sunday in testing conditions.
And so the Tempera-tec / JJ boats sponsored Eastern Series ended its seventh event with the next event at Minnis Bay taking place after the Nationals looking ever more important to those in contention.
An impressive fleet of twenty boats met to contest the ever-popular Creeksea Sailing Club Phantom Open meeting over the weekend of 4th and 5th July. The weather forecast had looked too good to be true but for once it lived up to its promise with glorious sunshine and an improving breeze all weekend.
The wind direction did however give the crack race officer team under the direction of Edwin Buckley a challenge in setting good starting windward legs but the judicious use of temporary marks and navigation buoys ensured that a variety of courses were set.
Race one saw the fleet catch the last of the ebbing tide to fetch the navigation mark off the Burnham Yacht harbour with home club members Roberts and Ingram being first to round and head back up river against the tide with the fleet strung out behind. Ingram managed to overtake Roberts on the run and led around every subsequent mark. Unfortunately for him this included rounding the final mark the wrong way thus gifting Roberts a race win ahead of Ian Miller from Alton Water.
Race two was held over the same course and this time Lawrence Crispin dominated the race finishing ahead of an in form Miller and Simon Fielden.
After lunch the fleet had to acclimatise themselves to both a slight change in wind direction and a flooding tide over a revised course. In their eagerness to start several sailors misjudged the line and paid the penalty. Race winner Ingram made no mistakes with the course this time and fought his way past Allen Burrell to record another home boat win.
After day one the results were looking close and the big guns in the fleet were looking nervous. An excellent evening ashore with free apres-sail beer and a meal in town was rounded off by the sharing of a specially commissioned birthday cake for the ever young James Case.
Sunday was another glorious day with the breeze resolutely refusing to swing either East or West to give a decisive first beat. So it was that the old favourite course involving a beat to Canewdon was pulled out of the Race Officers armoury of up river courses. Also appearing was a starting gun that ensured the fleet would be in no doubt that they had started!
The first race of the day was won by Crispin ahead of a delighted Doug Conway – making his long journey from the far North worthwhile. Much place changing took place during the race with local boats spotting the opportunity to exploit their Crouch knowledge on the reach back to the club by changing banks and crossing the tide to benefit from strong wind and slacker water on the North shore.
Race two was held back to back and was won by Simon Fielden who appeared to have shrugged off both his hangover and his past loathing for anything less than a gale!
After lunch the final race of the day was sailed over a shorter course and multiple laps as the fleet had by now had enough of close tacking amongst local day boat classes and racing yachts whilst resisting the attentions of everything from passing Sunseekers to ex-RNLI lifeboats.
As if to oblige the wind picked up to give onshore spectators a real treat of Phantoms in their element, blasting through reaching legs with many a grin to be seen. The placing of the windward mark also gave rise to some place changing and the odd swim as gusts dropping over the riverbank caught the unwary. Crispin and Burrell really came to life in this race and battled around the course to finish ahead of Fielden.
With a consistent set of results with nothing less than a fifth and three race wins Crispin won the Open ahead of a very happy Fielden. Burrell took third spot and Ingram fourth.
Notable achievements lower down the fleet were acknowledged at the prizegiving with Mark Ingall of the home club being congratulated for a determined performance in his classic non self draining wooden boat with tin rig having completed all the races on Sunday in testing conditions.
And so the Tempera-tec / JJ boats sponsored Eastern Series ended its seventh event with the next event at Minnis Bay taking place after the Nationals looking ever more important to those in contention.
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