D-Zeros at the Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy
by Mandy Horton 29 Jan 2015 09:22 GMT
24 January 2015
Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy 2015 © Tim Olin /
www.olinphoto.co.uk
Seven D-Zeros travelled to the Steve Nicholson Trophy on Saturday. As the briefing was held, the lighter sailors among the fleet were quietly celebrating the apparent lack of wind on the lake. However, these celebrations were short-lived as the wind filled in and the breezy forecast came true with a few minutes to go until the start.
The high number of boats milling around the start line, combined with the increased wind, made it quite tricky to hear start signals and work out what was happening but most boats made it over the line eventually! David Summerville quickly became leading D-Zero, while behind there was some very close battles between the other D-Zero sailors. Positions kept changing upwind and then on the fast reaches, with Nigel Austin (possibly sailing his boat for the first time) and Mandy Horton continually swapping positions! Stuart Bailey was keeping the pressure up close behind. The wind seemed to keep increasing and there were some interesting gybe mark roundings as twenty boats hurtled towards the mark at the same time! Some of us chose to be quite careful with our new boats, preferring to avoid the shouting right by the mark! Unfortunately, David stopped for a bit of breaststroke practice part the way through the race, which allowed Russ Hopkins to close in on him a bit. The close racing continued right to the end of the race, with David taking 1st, followed by Russ, Dave Woods, Nigel Austin, Mandy Horton, Stuart Bailey and Gordon Stewart.
In race 2, the wind finally dropped a little and the racing was even tighter. David again led the fleet, with Stuart doing a great job in second. Behind those two, the rest of the D-Zeros were even closer together and again, positions kept changing on the reaches as the boats planed over the waves! The end of the race seemed like a photo finish behind the two leaders, as Dave, Gordon, Mandy and Nigel all crossed the line together, with Russ only a couple of seconds behind.
The final results were; David 32nd, Dave 61st, Russ 63rd, Nigel 66th, Mandy 67th, Stuart 68th and Gordon 72nd. The breezy event and close racing were enjoyed by everyone and we are now looking forward to the Grafham Grand Prix, as well as the Tiger Trophy for those who are going.
Full Results can be found here.
Plenty of chat on our Facebook group.
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