Firefly Foot Trophy at the Welsh Harp Reservoir
With a westerly force 3-4 and clear skies the weather was perfect for a day of team racing at The Welsh Harp reservoir in North London. The Foot trophy, whilst being run by Castaways, was hosted at BTYC in their fantastic clubhouse at The Harp over the weekend of 23rd/24th October.
The format for this year’s Foot Trophy was 2 boat random pairs team racing, with 12 teams coming from 4 different clubs. The racing was close, and the results indicated a four way tie at the top of the standings after 4 races, with nobody winning all their races. The same theme continued throughout the day with nobody running away with the competition. In the end after 13 rounds of racing there was a 3 way tie for 2nd place, but the winner with 10 wins from 13 races was James Clay, crewed by Rocio Armas, from University of London SC.
Saturday’s team racing gave way to Sunday’s fleet racing, with boats competing for the mysterious Gnurns Trophy. The wind was a slightly lighter force 2-3 from the North, which is always a shifty direction for the breeze to come from at the Harp. The direction also led to a compact trapezoidal course, with a beat towards the shifty north shore. The format was short course racing with high points scoring, and no discards. After the first lap of the first race it looked like the defending champions would run away with it but after a good start it came down to the last beat with Oren Richards breathing down Tony Thresher’s neck. The competitors were all pushing the short start line throughout the day, and some pushed it slightly too far. In race 4 one boat confidently carried on, at some points sailing one leg ahead of everyone else only to find out they were OCS at the finish line.
The results of the Gnurns Trophy competition was a thoroughly deserved win for Tony Thresher, sailing with his daughter Moira from West Oxfordshire SC, with James Clay in 2nd and Oren Richards in 3rd. Castaways would like to invite teams wishing to compete at the 2011 Foot Trophy on 29th/30th October 2011 to contact castaways.sailing@gmail.com