Event 2
Venue: Wentworth Action Sports, Tallington
Date: 10 June 2006

New Club on the Block win at Tallington
The racing was close, fast and furious at Tallington this Saturday (10 June) with Norwich Force Eighth and Alton Water Wipeouts battling hard for team honours. Sunshine and wind abounded for the second event in the east zone (winds up to force 5 in June - fantastic!) which was hosted by the Wentworth Warriors, based between Stamford and March. After a great day’s racing, eventually Norwich Force Eighth, the newest club in the zone, came out on top with 56 points as opposed to Alton’s 58.

Alton Water Wipeouts had the most in their team this time around with 7 competitors, although we did have to delay the briefing for some of their late arrivals (only joking guys, I know it’s a long way for you to travel and it is appreciated). Norwich Force Eighth had grown from 1 to 5 competitors (will they have 15 by the last event?); Lakeside Loafers produced a team of 4 whilst Jonti gathered 2 and Wentworth Warriors mustered only one, although Charley puts in as much effort as a whole team.

Once the briefing was completed it was time to hit the water for some racing. The 3.5m and 4.5m fleet were looked after by Ian Haywood, Head Coach for the Wipeouts, who was assisted by Clare, a former team15 Alton racer. Phillip Bennett-Lloyd (Norwich Coach), Tamzin Hurley (Warriors Coach) and Charlie Walters (Lakeside Coach) covered rescue duties whilst the team of Gina and Graham Colam took care of the 5.5m and 6.8m classes.

The 3.5m class was best attended with 7 competitors and, because of the strong wind their course was set in the lee of the centre at Tallington, the wind being off-shore. The start line for the course was Ian Haywood at one end, stood on the shore, and a buoy in the water at the other with the wind coming from behind the coach towards the buoy. The competitors lined up behind the start line with sails in the water. There were three flags, red, yellow and green; red on a 2 minute sound signal was raised then dropped at 1 minute with the yellow flag raised; this was dropped at GO with the green flag raised. To help the competitors a 10 second count down was given and they had been advised at the briefing that this would be the time to uphaul their sails. Once across the start line they then had to head out on a reach to another marker buoy a short distance away, tack around it and race back across the start line in the opposite direction to finish.

The 4.5m fleet had four competitors and sailed on the same course although they had to tack three times, twice around the outer buoy and once around the inner or start line buoy before crossing the finish line. The 5.5m and 6.8m course was a triangular course with the windward mark about 50 meters from the training centre, a start set between the Tallington Ridgeflex and a buoy. The 5.5m fleet with its five competitors had to complete a triangle lap whilst the 6.8m sailors (three sailors) had a longer course consisting of a triangle followed by a sausage.

The racing in all the fleets was very close with several winners. The exception to this was in the 6.8m fleet with Liam Taylor (Team Jonti), who hasn't lost a race so far this season - is he going to prove unbeatable? Liam used his own kit in the two morning races and then borrowed the RYA Techno 6.8m to compete in the two afternoon races. This could prove costly to his parents as when asked if he liked it he said "I love it, it’s much better than my IMCO in this wind". Thanks  to Bruce Bonar, RYA High Performance Manager for the East Zone, for bringing the kit to the event to enable competitors to demo the new board. David Watts (Alton) had 2nd place covered all day and Robert Simpson, also of Alton, came in third.

Charley Sissons, representing the Warriors on a Bic Techno had more competition this time although she was the only 5.5m sailor on a Techno. The 5.5m fleet are catching her up and the result between herself and Sam Hayes (Norwich Force Eighth) was separated by just one point. There was some confusion on race control about Tom Bennett-Lloyd because although he had signed on in the morning as a 6.8m sailor, he used a 5.5m and sailed that course, taking his finish after sailing a triangle. The results showed him as 3rd in 5.5m fleet, 4th was Stefan (Alton) with team mate Hunt Collings in 5^th position.

In the 4.5m fleet the conditions made the racing really difficult with some sailors gybing around the buoys instead of tacking. A quick session on the shore with Ian Hayward acting as race coach to the whole fleet sorted this out and everyone in the fleet improved race by race. The result was very close with six races being run so that Ian could separate the competitors. Ryan Middleton (Norwich Force Eighth) came out ahead with 8 points, next was Dean Taylor (Alton) with 9 points followed by James Hammond (Norwich) with 10 points and finally Chloe Smith sailing for the Lakeside Loafers.

The first 3.5m race proved interesting! With everybody forgetting to put their daggerboard down the resulting downwind mess took 20 minutes to bring the sailors back. A quick reminder and briefing by Coach Hayward soon sorted things out. A really strong performance was put in by Tom Bailey (Lakeside Loafers) mastering the very blustery conditions to win overall, but all sailors tried really hard and each deserve a big pat on the back. Becca Calder (Alton) pushed hard and earned her race win and second in fleet. Joe Dailey (Lakeside) was 3^rd, Joanna Harley (Alton) 4^th, Jack van der Berg Hider (Alton) 5^th, Florence Avery (Jonti) sailing for her fourth time ever achieved 6^th postion and Conner Jones (not ‘James’ - sorry Conner) of Lakeside, 7th.

The team result with the best three races to count was as follows: Norwich Force Eighth won with 56 points, Alton Water Wipeouts were second with 58 points, Lakeside Loafers third (96 points), Team Jonti fourth (119 points) and Wentworth Warriors fifth on 124 points.

The series is shaping up as follows: Alton Water Wipeouts lead with 121 points, Norwich are currently second (150 points), Lakeside Loafers third with 164 points, Team Jonti fourth (185 points) and Wentworth Warriors - who could do with a larger team to support Charly Sissons - fifth with 218 points.

The trophies and certificates were handed out by Tamzin Hurley, host Coach from Tallington, who thanked everyone for attending. Steve Sissons helped with results and Gill Sissons wrote out the certificates out - so thank you both.

The next event will not be on the 1st of July as I will be in Fuertaventura (lucky me) so I am hoping to move it to Saturday the 15th of July - watch the website for details. Sorry for the change but I need a holiday guys!  

Team winner
Norwich Force Eighth

Event report
Written by Graham Colam (T15 CO - East)

We are the Champions!
West Kirby Warriors
T15 Champions 2008

Congratulations!

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