Results / Open Whitefriars SC - 04/08/2007

Bright sunshine and a good breeze heralded a great day’s sailing with 4 races at Whitefriars on Sunday Aug 5th.  With the cancellation of the circuit event at Filey, this was the last real opportunity for RS500 sailors to prepare for the Nationals at Lymington over the August Bank Holiday weekend.  All 4 Whitefriars boats turned out, as well as a couple of visitors.  Charlie Merchant (Demo Dave) and Joe Raven from LDC came along with Chris Gill and Adam Broughton with their brand new boat.

The first race started promisingly for the Whitefriars sailors with Pete Mallaband and Lesley Bolton first to the windward mark with John Andrews and Jennie Horton close on their tail.  Both teams then sailed off to the wrong mark (home club??) and Chris and Adam took the lead and never looked back.  This set the tone for the rest of the day’s racing.  Team Gill and Broughton just got better and better, reading the shifts, managing the gusts and comfortably winning the LDC Open prize.  They look very strong for Lymington.  Demo Dave was consistently 2^nd except for race 3 where Pete Mallaband managed to grab a very important 2^nd place.  All the Whitefriars’ sailors had very close racing with positions changing regularly.  John Andrews improved throughout the day, beating Pete Mallaband for 3^rd in the last race, however Pete’s 2^nd in the 3^rd race meant that with 3 races to count, local honours and the Lynall Boats’ prize for first Whitefriars’ boat went to Pete by 1 point.

4 of the boats are booked up for the Nationals, current Fat Face leaders, the Pillings, will need to be at their best to fight off the challenge from Chris and Adam. 

Many thanks to LDC Racing Sailboats and Lynall Boats, Cheltenham for donating prizes.

Also thanks to the Whitefriars team of OOD, rescue and teabar for making sure the event ran smoothly.

A great day’s sailing and the Nationals now beckon, with some serious sailing to come.