Results / Fat Face Racing Circuit Filey SC - 13/05/2006

Fourth Round of the RS200 Fat Face Racing Circuit at Filey SC � if you thought the trip too long, piece of advise don�t make the same mistake again. For the first time the RS200 fleet travelled to Filey for a Fat Face Racing Circuit event and 30 200�s enjoyed a top quality event. It was also this reporters first ever visit to Filey, an experience I will be repeating as soon as possible. Filey has a classic bay, which produces some excellent sea sailing conditions; with anything approaching sunshine, as opposed to grey damp, it is also a beautiful location. Filey SC itself lent much to the enjoyment of the event with its location and hospitality of its members. The small clubhouse may be at the bottom of a collapsing cliff and is reached by such a steep road that the Swiss would have put a chain railway on it but it is well worth the effort. Afloat PRO Peter Crooks and his team made excellent use of the conditions and turned racing round very rapidly. Carl Whitehead and the RIB team also laid some top courses making mark moves quickly. Ashore, �1.80 a pint, a serve yourself bar in the middle of the club room and a meal for �5 which was a serious attempt to attack the north face of the EU food mountain helped further enhance the enjoyment of the event! Saturday and the very wet start luckily had disappeared for rigging the boats to show a 10-12 knot northerly in the bay. By the time of the start of the first race this had swung to the northeast and risen to 14-17 knots for the three races. This produced great sea conditions with real waves with some awesome downwind sailing. Race 1 and David Giles/Kita Carpenter just led from Matt/Emma Jenkins at the first mark. The Jenkins showed impressive downwind speed to win from Tom/Jo Hewitson and local stars James/Mandy Whitehead. The Hewitsons were flying in race 2 and pulled out a good lead. Behind there was a ridiculous close finish for 2nd to 4th with 3 boats covered by less than a boat length. Ian Pickard/Louise Fisher just got the nod ahead of Mike Saul/Sophie Hartley and the Jenkins. Race 3 and the Hewitsons were at it again surfing into the lead. Martin Penty/Jeremy Collins and Pete Vincent/Tessa Nicholls swapped second place until Penty claimed it on the final run. Ashore and some tired crews looked back on a top day on the water; its not very often you the have the opportunity to sail in such classic sea conditions in a year. Those southern boats that did not even look at a map before foolishly deciding Filey was too far to travel will have to wait even longer for such conditions! Sunday and the wind had eased to 10/11 knots swinging to the southeast giving a much flatter sea in the bay. None of this seemed to have made any difference as the same record still seemed to be playing when the Hewitsons led at the first mark but then Tom made a mistake by not gybing early on the run and went to the unfavoured leeward mark. It could not have had anything to do with Jo and must have been due to the amount of beer Thomas had drunk with me according to my crew and she is always right! Mike Saul had been the first to gybe and took over the lead to win followed by Martin Penty with the Hewitsons recovering to third. Race 5 and David Giles got his brain into gear to lead from mark one to win. Andi Riley/Julie Marsden sailed an excellent race to claim second just ahead of Saul and the Hewitsons. The slim chance Saul/Hartley had of catching the Hewitsons disappeared when Giles again led race 6 with the Hewitsons keeping a close eye on Saul. Wayne/Debbie Fletcher had a storming race and pushed Giles/Carpenter all the way to claim second with Keith Escrit/Annabel Bannerman third. Martin Penty/Jeremy Collins won the silver division with two seconds ahead of Fileys finest the Whiteheads in second with Fiona/Steven Hall third. The Fletchers convincingly won the bronze division ahead of Ripon�s Jonathan Thompson/Meg Fletcher. Overall on the Fat Face Circuit Pete Vincent/Tessa Nicholls have a handy lead from fellow Bristol Corinthian members Ian Pickard/Loopy Lucy Matthews. David Giles/Kita Carpenter and the Hewitsons will strongly challenge when discards come into play and it�s building up to be a close tussle as the season progresses. Georgie Hill/Roger Tait had a disaster at Filey but still lead the Silver Division but Marin Penty, Andi Riley and the Halls are clearly going to be strong challengers all with three decent results. Paul Goodwin, with his third different crew of the season, has taken over at the top of the bronze division from Martin Fear/Chris Georyiou and the dark horses Jane Sutor/ Kat Matthews-Lundin. In a fortnight the fun continues with round five at Derwent Reservoir; perhaps some of the more northern based boats will realise the best way to keep circuit events in the north is to take part in them. Pete Vincent.