Poole, August 2001

The wind at Poole was very difficult. It was light "on average" but had huge variation between drifting and overpowering gusts within the space of one leg of the course. There were many, many holes, and between them were channels of wind that were merely one or two metres across. There was counter-flow within wind shadows along the bank, and a lot of swirling and turbulence that whipped up the water but gave no drive.

At the end of day 1 and 3 races, I was rounding out a list of excellent skippers (points): Roberts (5), Harris (9), Bantock (10), Priestley (16), Beacroft (17), Stollery (18), Fothergill (21), Wiles (21), Gilbert (23), Edwards (23), and Zule (23). At the end of day 2 and 7 races, my place in history clearly lay elsewhere, and the list of the top skippers of the weekend looked well established: Roberts (12), Harris (18), Bantock (18), Stollery (30), Edwards (37), Zule (38), Elliott (43), Wiles (43), Cleave (52) and Mills (57).

After 3 days and 10 races involving 62 entrants, the winner was Martin Roberts (Gadget), easily and clearly, with Graham Bantock (Italiko) second, fighting off Peter Stollery (Gadget) third after a poor start and Chris Harris (Gadget) fourth and always in the hunt, with Jure Zule (SLO, borrowed TS2) fifth and Tony Edwards (Ericca) sixth. I was not paying very much attention, I'm afraid, because I finished in 28th after very poor second and third days. Other fine results were posted from Graham Elliott (Gadget), Peter Wiles (new Oscar), Tommy Mills (Ikon), and John Cleave (TS2). The MYA site currently has the full listing.

Peter's boat was the only "new" item seen at Poole, although I did see some, erm, unusual rudders. A special mention goes to Benoit Aragon (FRA, Stealth) who was DSQd from "A" fleet into "E", and who then simply sailed back up again to "A" within two races. A number of the top skippers were absent, Peter Spence, Alastair Law, Trevor Bamforth, Richard Rowan, to mention a few.

Race organisation was very good by the Poole club, and David Munro and his team in particular. Phil Playle asserted a firm grip on the event as race officer, and protests were relatively few, though those that did occur almost certainly robbed us of at least one, and possibly two whole races.

2005-12-18

©2024 Lester Gilbert