Grafham Easter Salver
By admin. Filed in News |
Grafham Easter Salver April 12-13
The annual Easter Salver event took place over Sunday and Monday of the Easter weekend. Twelve Grafham boats and three visitors took part. There was some excellent racing with place changes, protests, penalty turns and retirements.
An Olympic course was used for Sunday’s racing in a pleasant force 2-3. In the first race Simon Kneller and Dave Lucas won in a brand new boat with Justin Waples and Ian Stowe second and Mark Longstaff and Graham Wadeley third. Peter Waghorn and Pip Noon sustained sufficient damage to retire for repairs: they reappeared for the later races.
The second race saw Kneller and Lucas lead but a tack too close to Waples and Stowe and penalty turns put them behind : Waples went on to win with Waghorn and Noon in the hastily repaired boat second and Les Rant and Susie Sontag were third after a protest.
Race three was held in a dying breeze. Waples and Stowe were forced to tack off early but that delivered them into a new breeze from the right which took them into the lead which they maintained. Waghorn and Noon were second with Kneller and Lucas third.
There was no wind on Monday so racing was abandoned, leaving Waples and Stowe the winners. The salver, itself, was awarded to Peter Waghorn and Pip Noon as only Grafham members are eligible for this prize.
Simon Kneller