Summer Series Event 2: King George, Sat 28 April 2007

     A welcome return visit to an old haunt! King George rolled out the red carpet for the LWA  on Sat 28 April, and loads of wind and sunshine into the bargain. There was a great turnout, 31 on the main course and 7 on the junior course.
     The wind blew somewhere between 10 and 14 knots most of the day and on most of the course, with a few occasional exceptions. It was certainly powerful enough to keep the 9.4 of Rob Kent ahead of Nick Kidd, now one of our diminishing band of Unlimiteds.
     Because of the wind direction and the fact that King George has its marks nailed to the bottom of the reservoir - and a fixed committee boat - the course setting was rather inventive, including a starboard-hand windward mark for the first two races, always the source of complications. On the day Rob Kent, Nick Kidd and Phil Hards managed to fill virtually all the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places with the exception of Race 4 when Chris Gibson sneaked into 3^rd.
     The racing was dominated by Rob Kent, who continues to fly on his Lightning 9.4, showing his mastery of the 9.5 fleet which today contained 16 sailors. Annette Kent, still using an IMCO 7.5 sail on a Mistral Equipe II, sailed brilliantly to take 6^th place overall. Ryan Taylor went very well as the sole IMCO youth, ending up with 16^th place overall. Ryan Tilbury grabbed 21^st place on his Techno and Stuart Tilbury persisted with his Formula board to take 25^th. The RSX's sailed by Alex Trickle and Jonathan Gibbs found the wind to be a little too inconsistent for them to make an impression on the front of the fleet and they filled 22^nd and 23^rd places. Other youngsters such as Liam Taylor, Jessica Kelly and Katherine Gibbs sailed determinedly on the main course and deserve congratulations.
     Prang department: Alan Jackson was in lethal mode and despite his usual mild manners both on and off the water he succeeded in damaging both Andy Lacy's and Dave Gilchrist's boards in Port/Starboard incidents when he was clearly on Port. Maybe for the next event he can be persuaded to remove the earplugs and blindfold. The Doctor Ding will be working overtime to sort out the craters in time for Christchurch.
     On the Junior Course seven youngsters slogged it out, the long reach from one side to the other of the reservoir tested their determination but they kept at it and we look forward to having them race with us again. The future of windsurfing lies in their hands and we're delighted to see so many of them moving up from the Team 15 beginners races to something more meaty. Sam Conroy won the 6.8's, Charlie Wilson the 5.5's and Andrew Robinson was the lone 4.5.
RESULTS: (Overal positions in brackets)
9.5:
1 Rob Kent (1); 2: Phil Hards (3); 3: Adrian Rippington (4)
Unltd:
1: Nick Kidd (2); 2:Richard Baker (11); 3:Paul Robinson (14)
ist Lady:
Annette Kent (6)
1st Formula:
Stuart Tilbury (25)
1st Youth:
Ryan Taylor (16)
1st RSX:
Alex Trickle

Junior Course:
6.8:
1: Sam Conroy (1); 2: Stuart Hards (2); 3: Alex Marshall (3)
5.5:
1: Charlie Wilson (4); 2: Conor Wells (5); 3: Dean Taylor (7)
4.5:
1: Andrew Robinson (6)

King George 28-Apr-07 R1 R2 R3 R4 Dis Total 1 919 Robert Kent RRM 1 1 1 1 1 3 2 133 Nick Kidd RUV 2 3 2 3 3 7 3 597 Philip Hards RRM 3 2 3 5 5 8 4 843 Adrian Rippington RRV 7 4 5 4 7 13 5 0 Christopher Gibson RRM 11 8 4 2 11 14 6 918 Annette Kent RIW 6 13 7 6 13 19 7 519 Dave Gilchrist RRV 5 14 8 7 14 20 8 8 Bill Keeling RRV 15 5 9 10 15 24 9 537 Rod Davis RRV 14 11 6 9 14 26 10 9383 Andy Lacy RRV 12 7 11 8 12 26 11 148 Richard Baker RUV 4 12 13 12 13 28 12 1881 Nick Fountain RRV 9 9 10 13 13 28 13 315 Geoffrey Gray RRV 13 6 27 14 27 33 14 353 Paul Robinson RUV 17 17 12 15 17 44 15 896 Dave Cole RRM 18 16 14 16 18 46 16 1 Ryan Taylor RIY 16 15 15 17 17 46 17 416 Alan Jackson RRV 8 10 DNF DNF 32 50 18 580 Russ Canning RRV 10 DNF DNF 11 32 53 19 8811 Kerry Hastings RRV 21 22 16 18 22 55 20 950 James Sharratt RIV 22 18 18 19 22 55 21 9610 Ryan Tilbury TCJ 23 19 21 20 23 60 22 465 Alexander Trickle RXY 24 20 19 21 24 60 23 9614 Jonathan Gibbs RXY 25 23 17 22 25 62 24 1311 Dave Kinnerley RIV 20 21 22 DNF 32 63 25 586 Stuart Tilbury F M 19 35 24 25 35 68 26 9529 Liam Taylor RMJ 28 25 20 24 28 69 27 485 Jessica Kelly RXW 29 24 23 23 29 70 28 538 Janet Pain RRW 27 26 25 27 27 78 29 9615 Katherine Gibbs TCW 30 27 26 26 30 79 30 497 Colin Flint RIV 26 28 28 DNF 32 82 31 277 Colin Pearce RRV 31 32 DNF DNF 32 95 Junior Course: R1 R2 R3 R4 Dis Total 1 9652 Sam Conroy 6.8 1 2 2 1 2 4 2 9597 Stuart Hards 6.8 2 1 1 2 2 4 3 9721 Alex Mitchell 6.8 3 3 5 3 5 9 4 9713 Charlie Wilson 5.5 4 4 3 4 4 11 5 9640 Conor Wells 5.5 5 5 4 5 5 14 6 343 Andrew Robinson 4.5 6 6 6 6 6 18 7 952 Dean Taylor 5.5 DNF DNF 7 DNF 8 23