I have to admit, at one point, the forecast didn’t exactly
fill me with excitement for the last event of the UKWA National Championship
Series at Stokes Bay, Gosport. However, after about 1.5 hours of postponement,
racing got underway in about 6 knots of wind.
Tom Naylor |
Annette Kent (photo by Paul Wyeth) |
Annette Kent had a solid performance, finishing ahead of
Harriet Ellis in every race, which put her in a good position going into the
final day to take the national title.
In the youths, it was Alice Butts who sailed the best in the
light, tidal conditions. However it was very close, with only a couple of
points separating the 4 youths at the end of the day.
Rob Kent (photo by Andy Stallman) |
The wind built to a nice 12-14 knots in the afternoon, and
the tide started to switch direction. Myself, Tom, and Mark started to have a
little bit of a speed advantage over Rob in the stronger conditions. I didn’t
have an amazing start in the first race, but a strong downwind saw me take the
lead, only to run out of outhaul rope at the leeward mark, forcing me to tack
to pull on outhaul on the other side of the boom. This sent me into slack/wind
with tide water, whilst Mark and Tom headed into the channel and established an insurmountable lead on me, with Mark winning the race. In the final race, I
took the start a little too relaxed and was called over within the final
minute. I had to go around the end, but couldn’t find a gap, and in trying to
manoeuvre myself into a position to start on time, fell in and gave everyone a
1 minute head start as I had some fun uphauling my sail! Mark and Tom sailed
off to take first and second, whilst I played catch up. I managed to pull back
to about 5th or 6th at the windward mark, then pumped
like crazy to arrive at the leeward mark in 3rd, a position I
managed to keep to the finish.
Louis Morris (photo by Robert Hajduk) |
Lewis Barnes was going quicker in the slightly stronger breeze,
and took a 4th and 5th. Similarly, Jenna Gibson started
chipping away at the points; with 3 top ten finishes on Sunday, she managed to
snatch the youth prize from Alice Butts, who did just enough to keep Thomas
Cave, who prefers stronger winds, behind her in the final result. However, with
the most consistent performance throughout the year, it was Thomas who was
first youth in the overall series, congratulations to him in his first year on
raceboard.
Sunday was the day for Harriet to get some points back from
Annette, but unfortunately for her, it
wasn’t quite enough, handing Annette both the event, and overall series win for
the womens prize.
In two weeks, the final inland event takes place at Pitsford
Reservoir near Northampton. After that, we look forward to more great racing
next year. However, there are still the LWA icebreaker events to go to if
anyone wants some more racing between now and next spring.
Event results summary:
1st, Louis Morris
2nd, 1st master, 1st
heavyweight, Mark Kay
3rd, 1st veteran, Tom Naylor
1st supervet, John Pete (6th overall)
1st lady, Annette Kent (7th overall)
1st youth, Jenna Gibson (10th overall)
Complete results: http://www.windsurfingresults.co.uk/StokesBay2015.html
Complete results: http://www.windsurfingresults.co.uk/StokesBay2015.html
Series results summary:
1st, Louis Morris
2nd, 1st master, 1st
heavyweight, Mark Kay
3rd, Robert Kent
1st Veteran, Tom Naylor (4th overall)
1st supervet, John Pete (6th overall)
1st Lady, Annette Kent (7th overall)
1st Youth, Thomas Cave (9th overall)
Complete results: http://www.windsurfingresults.co.uk/UKWACup2015.html
Complete results: http://www.windsurfingresults.co.uk/UKWACup2015.html
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