Chew Valley Lake SC RS200 SW Ugly Tour sponsored by 2ndhanddinghies.com

Wrapping up the RS200 SW Ugly tour, which is sponsored by www.2ndhanddinghies.com, was our ever popular season ender of Chew Valley Lake. This year was no exception to this, with a very busy dinghy park with boats everywhere. Quick totting up appeared to suggest 30ish boats, this however turned out to be an underestimate, with an awesome turnout of 37 boats. The wind looked promising, with a forecast of 10-12kts gusting 20, due to build through the day, and on looking out from the clubhouse, it looked like Chew had delivered.

Race 1 kicked off the day, with Maria Stanley/Rob Henderson took the initiative and held off the attacks of Edd Whitehead/Emma Clarke and John Teague/Naomi Pound, with these three pulling out a small lead on the fleet. Jack Holden/Amy Yeoman were having none of this though, and had a blinder of a final beat, chasing the shifts on the right hand side to storm into the lead, and holding off Whitehead/Clarke in second place. Stanley/Henderson took third, with local boat Nick Martindale/Ruth Kenyon showing great pace downwind in the breeze to pull through to take fourth from Teague/Pound.

Race 2 saw the wind drop a little and really begin to shift around, keeping the fleet on their toes, with plenty of snakes or ladders around. This race saw the fleet really spread out, as once again Holden/Yoeman took the lead and held off the ever present Whitehead/Clarke with Alistair Norris/Helen Summersgill getting in on the action and snapping at their heels. In fourth Martindale/Kenyon again showed their speed with Stanley/Henderson rounding off the top 5.

Race 3 kept most of the shifts of the second race, but added some proper gusts into the mix, with the wind now a very exciting 15-20kts. The downwind rides were now really quite exciting, with plenty of thrills, and a few spills throughout the fleet, this saw Stanley/Henderson come into their own, clearly out to make their mark after leading most of the first race, and dominated to take their first race win. Yet again Whitehead/Clarke showed the rest of the fleet their heels, to take another second place, from Holden/Yeoman and Teague/Pound sneaking in on the final mark to take fourth from fellow Bristol sailors Norris/Summersgill.

Heading in to the final race, it was tight at the top, with the top 3 boats all able to finish on 5 points. It was however, Martindale/Kenyon who looked to take the initiative on the first run, only to sample the water temperature on the first gybe, in one of the now fairly hairy 22kts+ gusts. Stanley/Henderson hit the front of the fleet, going for the race win, although the event was to be decided behind. The omnipresent Whitehead/Clarke boat, showed complete consistency to round out the event with straight 2nds, from Norris/Summersgill in third place. Fourth went to Holden/Yeoman with the top five rounded out by Fred Mainwaring/Liz Teague putting in their best race of the event.

Overall the top three were all within a point, with Maria Stanley/Rob Henderson from Itchenor, taking the event, with fellow Itchenor sailors Jack Holden/Amy Yeoman in second place on equal points. A full house of 2's gave a third place overall for Edd Whitehead/Emma Clarke from Parkstone, showing just a competitive fleet this was. In fourth place was Alistair Norris/Helen Summersgill from Bristol Corinthian, with another Bristol team, John Teague/Naomi Pound rounding out the top 5. Local Chew sailors, Nick Martindale/Ruth Kenyon secured not only first Silver fleet in 6^th overall, but a certain promotion to the Gold fleet for next season, with David Sweet/Derian Scott again from Chew, taking second Silver in 9^th overall. Chew Valley sailors were clearly having a great day on their local water, with the Bronze fleet won by local boat, James Williams/Vicky Counsell, another sure fire promotion for next year from another Chew boat, John Spelman/Phil Brook in second.

Being the final event on the 2017 SW Ugly tour calendar, the final series prizes were presented by the tours namesake, past winner and sponsor Pete Vincent from 2ndhanddinghies.com. Overall, counting an impressive three bullets and winning the 2017 Ugly tour was Matt Mee/Emma Norris form Burghfield/Red Wharf Bay. In second place, showing great consistency again across the series, was the Parksone boat of Edd Whitehead and crews Karen Oldale/Millie Alcock/Emma Clarke. Taking third place overall in the series was Alistair Norris/Helen Summersgill from Bristol Corinthian, with the Bristol boat of John Teague/Naomi Pound in fourth and Parkstone boat of Owain Hughes and crews Jade Bowen/Ian Mairs/Poppy Husband rounding off the top 5. The Silver fleet was hotly contested, with Alistair Hodgson/Joanna Worrall from RYA winning by a point from the Chew Valley boat of Nick Martindale and crews Molly Frost/Ruth Kenyon and the Thornbury boat of Hannah and Nick Smith in third. The Bronze fleet was won by the soon to be promoted James Williams/Vicky Counsell from Chew Valley, winning by three points from Sarah and David Green from Llandegfedd and the Bristol Corinthian team of Kerry Pinker/Charles Richardson in third place just two points behind.

This season has seen some excellent events, hosted at all of our very friendly venues, seeing a record turnout of 47 boats at the stronghold of Parkstone, and closing out with a great 37 boats at Chew. Overall 85 different boats have competed in the series, across our 6 venues, spread throughout the year at great Inland, Sea and Estuary venues, next years tour is already much anticipated, will you be there?? As a bit of a warmup (not sure if this is the right turn of phrase given the event, but anyway...) for the 2018 season, the Winter Championships will be hosted on the first February weekend in our awesome SW area, at Bristol Corinthian YC, a perfect remedy for those Ugly tour blues over the winter waiting for the new season to kick off. A final mention must be made to the cake competition between clubs that has developed over the years, rounded off by a fabulous spread put on by Chew, we very much look forward to this trend continuing in 2018!

The best way to keep up to date with all things SW Ugly tour is on our facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/groups/179928052516/ see you next year!

More photos here

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