Grafham Inlands
By admin. Filed in News |
Flying 15 Inland Championships Grafham Water 2009. Click here for results
The British Isles Flying 15 Inland Championship was held at Grafham Water on the weekend of the 18th/19th April in gloriously sunny and breezy conditions. The Flying Fifteen Association was most grateful to the Grafham Club for agreeing to host the event at short notice when the pre-arranged venue became unavailable. The Race Officer Tom Smith provided first class race management using Olympic courses over the weekend.
Forty six boats entered the event from all over the UK, an excellent turnout for an event taking place in a non-qualifying year for the World Championship.
An impetuous fleet lined up for race one and almost inevitably a recall was necessary. The black flag was exhibited thereafter and the fleet were underway at the second attempt. The breeze remained fairly steady at around 20 knots but there were shifts enough to play and those who played them well gained substantially. Jeremy Davy and Simon Childs were first at the windward mark with a comfortable lead although by the next round it was a lot less comfortable with Steve Goacher and Phil Evans on their transom. Goacher and Evans duly powered through and went on to win by some margin. This outcome became something of a pattern as the weekend went on although race three produced a well deserved win for Mike Hart and Richard Rigg.
After three energetic races on Saturday some were hoping for an easier ride on the Sunday, the breeze stayed a northerly force 3-4, rather less gusty than the Saturday. Although the leading pack in both races tended to pull clear, there was very close racing in the main fleet with the somewhat inevitable ‘events’ at mark roundings. The three boat length rule was, perhaps, not yet familiar with some competitors!
Overall, this was a very enjoyable weekend’s racing. Steve Goacher and Phil Evans won four of the five races to win the Inland Championship for the third year in succession.
The event was sponsored by easy-Jet who generously donated two return tickets to anywhere on easyJet’s network of over 80 destinations and they were won in a draw by Richard Ledger, the Flying Fifteen website editor.
Simon Kneller