Championships start with strong winds
The first day of the firefly nationals was a blustery affair with strong westerly winds forcing the race officer Frank Newton to postpone racing until the afternoon. Competitors arrived at the race area to find the wind still gusting 25 knots and building chop. The fleet got away under a gate start, with pathfinders David Ellis and Evie Snedker, in their newly renovated boat “Geoff”, leading the way.A left hand shift at the end of the first beat favoured Mel and Rob Sherrington who led around the top mark, closely followed by Ben and Jenny Vines and Jono and Sarah Pank. Stuart and Jane Hudson rounded fourth and showed good off wind speed, making gains down a very exciting first reach, (snorkels and masks would have been helpful for crews!) and sailing into 2nd by the gybe mark and 1st by the leeward mark, with the Sherringtons in 2nd place.At the windward mark for the second time, the Hudsons and Sherringtons had consolidated their positions, with the Panks and Vines and enjoying some close racing behind.
After a hairy run, and with the wind building, the race officer decided to shorten course at the next windward mark, with the Hudsons finishing first and Sherringtons second making it a keyhaven yc 1,2 followed by the Panks, Vines and Kameens.
Full results of Race 1 below. Email to follow with some pictures (2)
1 3850 Fursty Ferret Stuart and Jane Hudson 1 2 3617 Iris Rob and Mel Sherrington 2 3 1954 Pogie Jono and Sarah Pank 3 4 2144 Fetherlite Ben and Jenny Vines 4 5 2018 Biscuit Buffalo Paul and Laura Kameen 5 6 888 Desperado Andy Cornah and Kate Fairclough 6 7 3746 Tic Tac Dan and Ella Vincent 7 8 4077 Serious Repair Tony Thresher and Ben Nicol 8 9 3119 Horror Roger and Finn Morris 9 10 2659 Kong Ben Lumby and Liz Evans 10 11 973 Spiderling David and Betty Sincock 11 12 3023 Fourwood thinking Barney Smith and Karen Main 12 13 3674 Flo 1 Connor Miller and Emily Nagel 13 14 3739 Willow Lucy Boreham Rachel Crebbin 14 15 3671 Purple Doris Fred Mainwaring and Jenn Lamb 15 16 3318 Lynestra Guy Davison and Izzy Bretherton 16 17 2849 Geoff David Ellis and Evie Snedker 17 18 3095 Mensonge Christian Guy and Simon Cowdell 18 19 2246 Scruffy Alexander Baxter and James Nichol 19 20 3957 Mallatoo Ben and Bea Burrows 20 21 2803 Grendel Ed and Lucy Smith 21 22 3677 Wiki Wiki Geoff Hall and Hayley Goacher 22 23 3801 Fearless Freda Alex and Jonathan Howe 23 24 792 Rissa Oliver Burrows and Olive Balfour 24