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Fishers’ Green showed a different face to us when we arrived on Saturday morning, the usual welcome and the bacon butties were there but for the first time the wind was blowing from a different direction, a southerly instead of the usual northerly. We had been warned about their weed growth, which many shallow lakes are suffering from at this time of the year, but there was enough deeper water in which to set a course.
Fifteen raceboards and fiveTechnos arrived, including two of the new Starboard Phantoms in the hands of Chris Gibson and Andy Lacy. We should change the name of the board now as it has actually materialised and is no longer a figment of Andy Lacy’s imagination (and his bank account!). Rob Kent also had one but had not yet sailed it so he was playing safe on h is Equipe II - although totally substantiated rumours now revealed that there is a Mistral Equipe lll in the offing, with an expected appearance date on the market of May 2009. Whilst we’re on the subject a prototype of the also much-awaited Tushingham 9.4 TK made an appearance at Fat Face on a Phantom, and it seems that Dave Hackford is scheduled to sail this combination at the RYA/UKWA Championships at Weymouth this coming weekend. This is beginning to sound like the start of the Longboard Revival………………..
Maybe this is a good time to mention that the WORLD RACEBOARD MASTERS (ie over 35) CHAMPIONSHIP is once again being held in the UK, from Aug 22 to 29 at Weymouth. This is a fantastic competition and in the past many LWA sailors have travelled all over Europe to take part, with considerable success. So if you are planning your 2009 holidays please take this event into account and come to Weymouth to show off the strength of UK Raceboarding and welcome our fellow Raceboarders from overseas.
We were delighted to see couple of “old faces” in the shape of Dave Cole and Paul Cross who came out of the mists of the past to join us and a newcomer to the youngsters was Sam Jenkins. We hope to see them all again at our future LWA events.
Race One was characterised by an over-biased start line, shallows and very shifty winds indeed, which also produced strong gusts, making for very tricky conditions. Robert Kent took first place followed by Chris Gibson and Nick Kidd, however Andy Lacy would have been in the top three but for some confusion over which was the windward mark. A great pity this, because otherwise Andy would have pipped Chris Gibson for second place overall, neverthless he decided that he was getting value for money with his new Phantom! Alan Jackson, sailing a prudent 7.5 having broken a batten in his 9.4, had a good result in 4th place. In the youngsters Charlie Wilson bagged the first of his two wins in his battle with Sam Jenkins and Conor Wells, Henry Bloodworth and Andrew Robinson slogged it our for the remaining places.
The course was rejigged for Race Two and the places at the front of the fleet were reshuffled, Rob still finishing first, with Annette Kent taking second ahead of Chris and Nick.
Some of us found it a bit of a struggle to get through the weed to get back to the clubhouse for lunch and then out to the start line again, only to be greeted with an absolute downpour of rain. Race Three found Mr Kent once more crossing the line first, but Andy had given him a hard time and Rob only managed to get past him due to an unfortunate “falling off”, Andy eventually finishing second to Chris’s third. The last race found the same suspects in places one and two with Annette taking third place ahead of Chris.
This left Rob with four wins, but Andy’s navigational problems left him carrying a sixth, so this pushed him down to third overall, letting Chris Gibson sneak ahead with a second and two thirds. Further down the fleet Dave Kinnerley sailed well on his 7.5 Demon to take 7th place and win the 7.5 fleet.
In the youngsters Sam and Charlie both finished on the same points and they were equal on countback, so the honours went to Sam as winner of the last race. Conor Wells’ second place in Race One helped him to 1st place in the 6.8 fleet ahead of Andrew Robinson, and Henry Bloodworth sailed brilliantly on his 4.5, sneaking two third places and finishing two points up on Andrew.
RESULTS: (Overalls in brackets)
9.5 Raceboard:
1: Rob Kent (1); 2: Chris Gibson (2); 3: Andy Lacy (3)
1st Lady: Annette Kent (4)
Unlimited:
1: Nick Kidd (5) 2: Paul Robinson (9)
7.5 Raceboard:
1: Dave Kinnerley (7); 2: Colin Flint (13)
Youths and Juniors:
7.8 Techno:
1:Sam Jenkins (1); 2: Charlie Wilson (2)
6.8 Techno:
1: Conor Wells (3); 2: Andrew Robinson (5)
4.5:
1: Henry Bloodworth (4)
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Fishers Green Sat 6 Sep 2008 |
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Raceboards: |
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R1 |
R2 |
R3 |
R4 |
Dis |
Tot |
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1 |
919 |
Robert Kent |
RRM |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
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2 |
0 |
Chris Gibson |
RRV |
2 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
8 |
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3 |
9383 |
Andy Lacy |
RRV |
DNF |
6 |
2 |
2 |
15 |
10 |
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4 |
918 |
Annette Kent |
RRW |
5 |
2 |
6 |
3 |
6 |
10 |
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5 |
133 |
Nick Kidd |
RUV |
3 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
11 |
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6 |
416 |
Alan Jackson |
RRV |
4 |
5 |
5 |
6 |
6 |
14 |
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7 |
1311 |
David Kinnerley |
RIV |
6 |
9 |
8 |
11 |
11 |
23 |
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8 |
537 |
Rod Davis |
RRV |
DNF |
7 |
9 |
9 |
15 |
25 |
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9 |
353 |
Paul Robinson |
RUV |
7 |
11 |
11 |
8 |
11 |
26 |
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10 |
557 |
Graham Horsley |
RRV |
8 |
8 |
13 |
10 |
13 |
26 |
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11 |
896 |
Dave Cole |
RUM |
DNF |
DNF |
7 |
7 |
15 |
29 |
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12 |
177 |
Paul Cross |
RRV |
9 |
10 |
14 |
13 |
14 |
32 |
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13 |
497 |
Colin Flint |
RIV |
DNF |
DNF |
10 |
14 |
15 |
39 |
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14 |
538 |
Janet Pain |
RRW |
DNF |
DNF |
12 |
12 |
15 |
39 |
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Technos: |
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R1 |
R2 |
R3 |
R4 |
Dis |
Tot |
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1 |
425 |
Sam Jenkins |
7.9 |
DNF |
2 |
1 |
1 |
6 |
4 |
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2 |
9713 |
Charlie Wilson |
7.8 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
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3 |
9640 |
Conor Wells |
6.8 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
3 |
5 |
8 |
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4 |
852 |
Henry Bloodworth |
4.5 |
3 |
5 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
10 |
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5 |
343 |
Andrew Robinson |
6.8 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
12 |
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