BIFFA

Chew Valley Flying Fifteen Open Meeting: 16-17 May 2009.

Thirteen boats, six from the home club and seven visitors arrived at Chew Valley Lake for the annual open meeting despite a dreadful weather forecast.  (For those who think weather forecasts are useless, read on). Their arrival was greeted with a persistent force 5 to 6 wind gusting to force 8. Two elected not to remove the covers but ten started the first race with eight finishing.

Simon Patterson and Simon Thompson used their weight advantage to good effect by establishing an early lead which was not challenged. David and Sally McKee were second. Behind them a close struggle between David and Catherine Brockbank and Mike Thompson and Simon Millington resulted in the Brockbanks winning by one second, close enough that Simon and Catherine could almost hold hands.

The second race was sailed in the windier conditions of the two with gusts of 49mph recorded. Patterson-Thompson and the McKees fought out the lead again but not so far ahead. A slight collision in the difficult conditions made Patterson and Thompson do two turns, giving the McKees the win. The planned third race was abandoned for the day as the conditions worsened and the competitors retired to the club to enjoy some Butcombe bitter from the local sponsoring brewery.

Sunday looked to be perfect first thing in the morning but the meteorologists were soon proved correct when the wind and the rain arrived. Race three fairly quickly assumed the previous pattern and was won by the McKees with the two Simons second. The tussle for third was enlivened by the parting of the gooseneck fitting on the mast of Mike Thompson and Simon Millington’s boat resulting in third place for Peter Hogg and Alex Dobson. A failure of the main halyard in race four on Simon Patterson and Simon Thompson’s boat meant that Peter Hogg finished second behind David McKee. As the wind gusted once again to 48mph race 5 was abandoned leaving the McKees the overall winners.

Llangorse Sailing Club hosted 22 Flying Fifteens over the weekend of 9^th & 10th May 09 for the TNT sponsored Traveller event and annual LSC F15 Open Meeting.

There were 4 Open, 5 Silver & 13 Classics with 14 Visitors. A low turn out from the Llangorse boats

The wind strength was ideal 12 knots with gusts up to 15.Unfortunately the direction of SW was not the best for the Llangorse Lake.

With the forecast for Sunday being little wind it was agreed to try for 3 races on the Saturday

There were 2 starts Open & Silver followed by Classic.

Race 1

Both starts were clean but unfortunately the wind did a Llangorse and made for a biased beat.

In the Open fleet Richard Hope in 3642 made a good start which he consolidated during the race to win

Classic fleet saw Tim Tomlinson 2433 charging to the wrong mark. He did recover later in the race after a battle with Nick Heath 2520 and Peter David 2645 to win.

The Silver was won by Andy Clarke 3378.

Because of the big wind shift the Race Office shortened the race

Race 2

Good windward leg this time with the wind increasing to 15 with some gusts at 20.

Unfortunately Richard Hope had a gear failure which left David Morgan 3780 to establish a good lead which he held to the end.

The long run down the lake saw some big place changes. Some went low(Llangorse boats)some went high(visitors).It usual evened out on the beats.

Result

Open 3780

Silver 3378

Classic 2433.

Race 3

Fortunately Richard Hope repaired his boat and made the best use of the increasing wind strength crewed by Scott Smith.

There were some exciting spinnaker reaches for all the boats

There was no place changing in open fleet the result being

3642,3780,3751

In the other fleets it was business as usual

Silver 3378 followed by 3006 David & Lynne Travis

In the Classic 2433 made it a hat trick of wins

The fleets then retired ashore for the usual Llangorse food after sailing followed by the Castle pub in Llangorse with much noise and good humour.

Sunday.

Very little wind maybe force1 from the North.

The Race officer set a figure of 8 course.

Race 4

The Open & Silvers made a clean start with 3751 coming off the worst. In the hope of improving things 3751 tacked off onto port into the middle of the lake.

This proved a good move where he got more wind reaching the windward mark 1^st. The wind varied from zero to just about planning.

3751 consolidated his lead finishing a comfortable winner.

The Classic race was much more frustrating with big holes in the wind and much place changing especially off the wind.

2695 eventually won followed by 2606

Silver saw a change of winners with 3365 followed by 3385

Race 5

The result for the Silver & Classic looked very much decided but with all to play for in the Open fleet.

Race 5 ran a similar pattern to race 4.

3751 broke away on the 1^st beat to set up a clear lead. There were a few anxious moments when they went into a hole but all was well in the end.

In the Silver it was again 3365 with Classic 2433 proving a comfortable winner.

Overall

Open.             3751   Nick & Claire Taylor

Silver              3378   Andy Clarke & Nadia Melnikova

Classic           2433   Tim Tomlinson & Mark Greer

Thanks to the race officer Robert Dangerfield and his team for all their efforts over the weekend

Royal Windermere Flying Fifteen Open Meeting – 2nd-3rd May – Click here for results

Lake Windermere was the setting for the annual Royal Windermere Yacht Club Open Meeting. The event attracted seven visiting boats from as far as Loch Earn Head SC, Sunderland, Ripon and Nottingham along with ten RWYC boats. All enjoyed the competition of the 2007 World Champion, Mike Hart and his crew Richard Rigg in Art Gekko but not without them having a “wake-up” call in the first two races.

On Saturday, sailing in the south lake with a variable force 2-3 breeze, local sailors John Atkinson and Elizabeth Moreton in Funny Enuff left Hart and Rigg a little anxious when the first race gave them a clear win, with much cheering from the home team. In the second race, Atkinson and Moreton paid penalties so Hart and Rigg still snoozing from the night before finally woke up and stepped it up a gear with a win.

In race 2 Nigel and Gavin Tullett demonstrated their skills in Kiffs (RWYC) with a second place and third overall. David (Daisy) Brockbank and Janet Lefton in Five (RWYC enjoyed a third place with fourth place overall , Mr. B now in touch with his feminine side by having a very large white daisy put on his very pink spinnaker (NB this could happen to any past Commodore of BIFFA so beware).

In race 3, Atkinson and Moreton returned to give the champion another strong challenge but on the final spinnaker run Hart came, apparently from nowhere, for another win. The race did not go without needing a gel-filling session later to Kiffs and Funny Enuff.

Two races on Sunday were sailed in the scenic north lake in a force 3-4 gusting 5 brisk breeze and Hart and Rigg won both..  Bobby Salmond and Robert Till in Vim (Loch Earn Head SC) showed their skills with two third places with the most travelled boat prize going to them.   Between races competitors lunched: Frank Kelly and Brian Garvey in Factor Fifteen (RWYC) tied up to a mooring, dropped their mainsail and had a picnic. They did not hear the warning signal or the five minute gun and if it were not for the fact that there was a general recall would have missed the start of race 3 altogether.

The Classic prize went to Graham Lamond and Scott Train in Fettercairn (Ripon SC) being a well deserved 8th overall.

The Franklin Eldridge trophy was collected by David Brockbank on behalf of team winners RWYC.

RWYC expertly organised the weekend with their on and off the water team and are to be complemented for their friendly hosting and excellent cuisine. The event was generously sponsored by Pattinson Builders and Goacher Sails.

Carole Berry

F15 Fleet Secretary, Royal Windermere Yacht Club.

Results for the Grafham Easter Salver invitation series are attached

Results Table

Welcome warmer weather and a fresh force four from the west greeted 20 Flying Fifteens who entered the first Open Meeting of the 2009 season. Race 1 saw Greg Wells and Mark Darling showing great boat speed, winning from welcome guest helm Russell Peters with Matt Alvarado, and Justin Waples and Iain Stowe in third. After a general recall, the second start saw the same fast boats at the front, Peters/Alvarado winning from Wells/Darling with Waples/Stowe third again. With very prompt turn-arounds from top notch Race Officer Peter Short, the third race was soon underway, Wells/Darling winning after an unusually poor start, from consistent Peters/Alvarado and regular visitors Ian Linder and Kevin Sweetman in third. Overnight, Wells/Darling led by 1 point from Peters/Alvarado with Waples/Stowe in third. Top Datchet boat was new combination Tom Hall and Grayson Eacott in 8th and top silver was Mike Firth and Phil Tinsley in 13th.
Glorious sunshine greeted the sore limbed crews on Sunday morning, with the lighter winds encouraging all. However the lighter weather made no difference, the same faces at the front. Race 4 saw Waples/Stowe record a welcome win, with Wells/Darling all but sewing up the overall win in second, and Linder/Sweetman again third. The last race was sailed in an ever lightening breeze, saw the local father and son crew of David and Dominick Hume cleverly read the conditions, taking an early lead, before being overtaken by Wells/Darling who walked away to a big win, from the improving Sam Mettam and Martin Grady, with the Humes holding on for third.
This left Wells/Darling the clear winners with 5 points, from Waples/Stowe in second with 11 and Peters/Alvarado in third with 14. Hall/Eacott hung on to top Datchet boat spot finishing 6th  winning the Verve de Verney trophy, and Firth/Tinsley top silver in 11th  winning the Tryer Trophy. At the prizegiving, Greg Wells was presented with the Mercedes-Benz trophy, and he thanked PRO’s Peter Short and Paul Robinson for laying on such splendid racing.
Datchet’s Open was the first of a new Southern Travellers Series, based on the currently successful Midland TNT series, where the previous years top 15 crews are excluded from the series results, acting as an encouragement for “ordinary” club sailors to try some Open meetings without being swamped by the “pros”. The next STS event is the next Open at Bewl in 2 weeks time, followed by Llangorse in early May.

David Seaman, Thursday, 15 January 2009

A great last day for the Regatta, with two boats tied on equal points, but it was Grant Alderson and Dean McAullay in 3833 who came up trumps.

After a poor start, they managed to get into fourth place to clinch the title.  They had to beat **** Barry Parkin to win, and they did it by one place.  A tremendous results for the West Australians, backing up their National Title from last week.

Well done to the locals, and congratulations to all who competed who made this a great event.

Full Results

After a close run last race described by Maf as “nervy” the Team GB Classic crew of  Andy McKee and Maf Smith sailing 2532 Feel Flows won the last race to take the Classic World Title.  A quick read of Maf and Andy’s blog will show that it was a shifty dieing breeze and quite a close last race but needing to come no worse than third to take the title they managed to prevail and win the race.  For a full account read the blog here

Full results here

David Seaman, Tuesday, 13 January 2009 – Overview, Day four.

Melbourne turned on a scorcher today, with a fiery northerly breeze. After one false start and a general recall, the fleet was extremely well behaved and got off to a clean start at the second attempt. The black flag obviously has some effect at this late start in the Regatta.

With a course running towards Altona Beach, the fleet separated to both sides of the course. At the end of the first beat to the gate, Grant Alderson led, he was overtaken on the downwind leg by 3880, Craig Rainey. By the time they returned to the kite run the the wing mark, the order was Alderson, Parkin, Apthorp and Bax.

The wind then did a Melbourne north of Port Phillip favourite, the south of the course had a southerly cooler breeze, and the north stayed with an increasing northly heat blast. At the finish (after a wide course change), it was No Bull (Grant Alderson) from Art Gekko (Mike Hart) by a short half head. Next was ff (Charles Apthorp), Ffrenetic (Murray Gilbert) and **** (Barry Parkin).

A draw with one race to go!

Results here

David Seaman, Tuesday, 13 January 2009

Day three, Monday 12 January

A brief overview, in Race 4 Art Gekko (Mike Hart) came in before n/a (Alan Bax) and **** (Barry Parkin), Race 5 changed to a local victory with No Bull (Grant Alderson) from Ark Gekko and tba (Steve Goacher).

See the results page for the full details.

Well, an interesting day to say the least, two races on both courses were accomplished ,and a long day for all, especially on the western course, when a start was only managed after 2pm. Black flags were on display, and used. We have not posted a report due to the jury deliberations, but here, at 10.37pm EST we can report that

2114 DSQ race 5
3835 BFG race 5
3883 DSQ race 5
3541 DSQ race 5

findings related to 3846 held over.

The provisional results are already posted, but will be amended to reflect the above shortly.

The classics and silvers were very well behaved, with no warnings, this cannot be said for the open course.

Full results here

Photo’s here