Race Report - Sunday 19th

The race report for today is .... "Snow - No Sailing!!" So that brings our Autumn Series 2010 to the end. We had fourteen boats entered in the series, of which nine qualified - a great result in itself. There was a substantial score difference between the top three boats, but interestingly all three had the same number of race wins.
Fine winners for the series are Dominic and David Hume. Their Ovington Mk IX boat, 3559, is in great shape. It must be around 1996 in vintage and was fitted out by David himself - quite a few clever ideas,... go and sneak a look. They use 5 year old McNamara sails and are rigged for a chute, not bags. Dominic is a great sailor, a previous Club Championship winner, and as I recall, David was a big wheel in the National GP14 fleet in years gone by - so no shortage of talent aboard there! Dominic and David were discarding 5ths. They had five wins this series.
In second we have Mark Firth and Tony Mumford, our current Club Champions. They've had boat problems this series and had to count one DNS in their final score. They had five wins this series. As we all know, they really sail very well in their Dingwall 3860 (sneak a look at their jib sheeting arrangement...) have it rigged for spinnaker bags, fly away pole, and use mainly Goacher sails - you may just occasionally see them wearing Batts too. I often think fly-away poles are for girls, but Tony seems to manage it pretty well.
In third were Richard Jones and Howard Shawyer. Family and work commitments kept them off the water too much for a good series and they had to count DNS three times in their score. They had five race wins this series. They race a two year old Ovington, 3934, and for this series have mainly used Goacher sails - at least for the wins! They are rigged with spinnaker bags and a standard end-to-end pole. They had an inconsistent series, marked by poor results at the beginning and good at the end of the series.
Fourth placed were Mike Firth, the senior branch of the Firth family, crewed mainly by Vice Commodore Phil Tinsley, but actually with a whole number of crews aboard this series. We have three generations of the Firth family racing at the Club now - amazing! Mike had a good run of results actually, but had to count a couple of DNS which brought them down. Mike's Team had four race wins.  Mike sails a Mk X Ovington, 3888, with Bax sails aboard. It is rigged for bags. Mike did very well in the 2010 Silver Southern Travellers Series, cleaning up there in Phil Tinsley's Silver boat 3385.
A special mention too for Roger Abbey-Taylor who finished in fifth in 2948, 'Midnight Cocktail'. I am sure that Roger would modestly say, "Turnouts Count!" - but he is still learning a lot and keeping at it tenaciously. Well done, Roger! Roger and Katherine Barrett take the Silver/Classic award this series.