Results / RS500 Racing Circuit Event DWSC - 09/05/2009
The 500 circuit arrived at Datchet on Sat 9th of May looking forward to the big breezes of the week before and to some wild 3 sail off wind sailing.
10 teams entered the event; with a mix of old hands and youth boats, from Budworth, Grafham, Hickling, Burghfield and 2 from the Royal Hospital School in Suffolk, along with 2 of the local boats. Sadly, the wind didn't show up for much of the weekend and the racing was characterised by sunshine, light winds and huge wind shifts which caused some surprising capsizes as the wind swung 180o in what seemed like a few milliseconds! Downdrafts from the planes were also noticeable at times as some of the strangest wind seemed to occur just after they flew directly overhead. A full series of 6 races were sailed, with 4 on Saturday as the forecast for Sunday was 0 wind. 3 teams counted firsts in their totals, but consistency was the name of the game and the front teams were Tim Wilkins crewed by Chris Tuckett in 625 scoring 1, 5, 1, 2, 2, 2; closely followed by Andy and Liz Palmer Felgate in 584 who showed great speed in the very light and shifty winds with scores of 5, 2, 4, 1, 1, 1. Alex Taylor/ Bryan Mobbs (534) were also consistently fast with results of 2, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3.
Overall the event was memorable for the sight of seeing 2 boats capsize on one of the starts in virtually no wind, due to a huge shift; thinking you were on the right side of the course and then being dumped in no man's land for ages whilst everyone else sailed away, a good night at the local pub with the 600 sailors and for the dubious pleasure of camping under the Heathrow flight path!!
The next event is at Rutland & the Gul Sprint Champs on May 30/31st.
| 1st | RS 500 | 625 | Sully SC/Hickling Broad SC | Tim Wilkins | Chris Tucket | 972 | 1.0 | (5.0) | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 13.0 | 8.0 | ||||
| 2nd | RS 500 | 584 | Burghfield Sailing Club | Andrew Palmer-Felgate | Elizabeth Palmer-Felgate | 972 | (5.0) | 2.0 | 4.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 14.0 | 9.0 | ||||
| 3rd | RS 500 | 534 | Budworth S C | Alex Taylor | Bryan Mobbs | 972 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | (3.0) | 3.0 | 3.0 | 14.0 | 11.0 | ||||
| 4th | RS 500 | 680 | Budworth S C | Kevin Gerald | Wendy Martin | 972 | (8.0) | 6.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 4.0 | 30.0 | 22.0 | ||||
| 5th | RS 500 | 542 | Grafham Water Sailing Club | Matt Johnson | Tom Weatherhead | 972 | 3.0 | 3.0 | (8.0) | 6.0 | 4.0 | 7.0 | 31.0 | 23.0 | ||||
| 6th | RS 500 | 747 | Royal Hospital School | Sam Curtis | Cameron Talbott | 972 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | (9.0) | 5.0 | 32.0 | 23.0 | ||||
| 7th | RS 500 | 525 | Burghfield Sailing Club | James Tanner | Lucinda Blain | 972 | 6.0 | (8.0) | 7.0 | 7.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 40.0 | 32.0 | ||||
| 8th | RS 500 | 637 | Datchet Water Sailing Club | Michael Clapp | Mark Bond | 972 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 6.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | (9.0) | 45.0 | 36.0 | ||||
| 9th | RS 500 | 578 | Datchet Water Sailing Club | Antony Mee | Adem Ikibiroglu | 972 | (9.0) | 9.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 7.0 | 8.0 | 51.0 | 42.0 | ||||
| 10th | RS 500 | 746 | Royal Hospital School | Robert Moritz | Christian Procter | 972 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 10.0 | (11.0 DNF) | 10.0 | 10.0 | 61.0 | 50.0 |