LWA Summer Series 2008

Brogborough Sat 5 April:
     The forecast predicted a drop in temperature and snow before the day was out, but although it rained from time to time it could have been a whole lot worse! The wind was coming from an unusual direction, more northerly than we are used to at Brog, which meant setting the beat parallel to the clubhouse shore. We used a Gate Start which is not customary in our Summer Series, but at least it gave people a fair chance in the shifty wind.
     Midlands visitor Tim Gibson sailing Unlimited stamped his mark on the event by taking the first race, hotly pursued by Richard Baker who has now dropped down to 9.5, Nick Kidd completed the first three across the line.
     Before Race Two the course was tweaked a little to bring the upwind buoys out of the wind shadow on the bank. Richard Baker found himself in a slight contretemps with mark no 2 which he collected on his fin and proceeded to relocate, much to the annoyance of those following him who had to sail an extra 20 yards! He eventually released himself but the incident put paid to his chances of another good result and he finished 7th, whereas Nick Kidd found his form and won the race ahead of Tim Gibson and Bernie Fyans, who was 1st Raceboard. Ian Kraft had kindly brought along a couple of Konas and a Warp-X for demo and Jon Davis. finding his newly attached slot flusher not quite as well attached as he thought, opted for the Warp-X in Race 2. He coped quite well with the very different sailing characteristics of the Warp-X but unfortunately he was so absorbed in his task that he missed sailing throught the start- finish gate on lap 2 and so lost out on what was probably a top 5 place.
     After lunch the wind picked up a little and Rod Davis took the Warp-X out in Race Three, but a slight problem with mastfoot incompatibility caused him to miss the start and so he was unable to see how well it went against the more conventional kit. Nick Kidd took another first place in this race ahead of Tim Gibson and a fast-moving Bernie Fyans. Dan Simpson had his best race of the day on his Formula board, taking 6th place - alas for him because of the inconsistent wind it was not to be a repeat of the Bough Beech whitewash. Anna Bird also tried her luck with her Formula board and managed to finish two races.
     The last Race found Tim Gibson crossing the line in first place once again, putting him on equal points with Nick Kidd, but handing Tim the overall victory as it was down to the result of the last race. Douglas Starr filled third place, his best result of the day and Jon Davis, once again on the Warp-X, filled 4th place.
   It was great to see half a dozen youngsters out there racing on a variety of kit, Matthew Brown doing especially well to finish 12th overall
     We had thought about an extra race using the Konas as well as the Warp-X, but the youngsters were having a lot of fun doing freestyle tricks on them, we noticed some great rail rides, that we left them to enjoy themselves.
   The Warp-X is obviously an effective piece of kit despite its odd looks. Understandably it demands a radically different technique from more conventional boards and the considerably reduced deck space behind the mast and the unusual reaching position will take some getting used to. The daggerboard kick-down pedal seems effective in shifting the very long high-aspect ratio foil so this previous objection has now been resolved. It will be very interesting when we see more of them out there on the circuit. Our thanks to Krafty for his generous effort in bringing the boards to Brog.
Photos courtesy of Mike Simpson.

RESULTS: (overall results in brackets)
Unlimited:
1: Tim Gibson (1); 2: Nick Kidd (2); 3: Paul Robinson (8)
Raceboard:
1: Bernie Fyans (3); 2: Richard Baker (4); 3: Andy Lacy (5)
Formula:
1: Dan Simpson (13
Techno 7.8:
1: Matthew Brown (12); 2: Charlie Money (14); 3: Alex Mitchell (18)
Techno 6.8:
1: Andrew Robinson (17); 2: Connor Wells (19)
5.5 Open:
1: Henry Bloodworth (20)

LWA Summer Series 2008 Brogborough 5 April Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4 Discard Total 1 40 Tim Gibson Unlimited 1 2 2 1 2 4 2 133 Nick Kidd Unlimited 3 1 1 2 3 4 3 8722 Bernie Fyans Raceboard 4 3 3 6 6 10 4 148 Richard Baker Raceboard 2 7 4 5 7 11 5 9383 Andy Lacy Raceboard 6 4 5 10 10 15 6 267 Douglas Starr Raceboard 8 6 8 3 8 17 7 537 Rod Davis Raceboard 5 5 11 9 11 19 8 353 Paul Robinson Unlimited 7 8 9 7 9 22 9 5371 Jon Davis Raceboard 9 13 10 4 13 23 10 843 Adrian Rippington Raceboard 10 DNF 7 8 22 25 11 557 Graham Horsley Raceboard 11 9 12 12 12 32 12 453 Matthew Brown Techno 7.8 12 10 14 13 14 35 13 21 Dan Simpson Formula 20 DNF 6 11 22 37 14 9692 Charlie Money Techno 7.8 13 12 15 14 15 39 15 538 Janet Pain Raceboard 15 11 16 15 16 41 16 497 Colin Flint Raceboard 7.5 14 17 13 DNF 22 44 17 343 Andrew Robinson Techno 6.8 17 14 20 17 20 48 18 9621 Alex Mitchell Techno 7.8 16 15 17 DNF 22 48 19 9640 Connor Wells Techno 6.8 18 16 19 16 19 50 20 29 Henry Bloodworth 5.5 Open 19 DNF 18 18 22 55 21 18 Anna Bird Formula DNF DNF 21 19 22 62