Serious Seas at Paignton

The RS700 Gul Grand Prix circuit moved on to Paignton for the second outing of the season for the early May Bank Holiday. The weekend demonstrated the vagaries of Windguru which was all wrong on Saturday when the promised F4/5 disappeared as we launched and was all too right on Sunday when we were blown out in F5/6 and heavy, breaking rollers.

In the first race on Saturday, in slackening light winds but a choppy swell, Jerry Wales led round the first windward mark closely followed by Tony Dencher with James Bayliss an honourable third. By the second WM the two leaders had been joined by Dan Azzopardi, in a welcome return to the circuit, squeezing ahead of Bayliss. At the start of the final run Tony went left while the others chose the other side of the course and found the pressure which allowed him to pass Jerry for the win. Tim Greenwood chose to follow Tony and was rewarded with third having rounded the last WM fifth.

Elsewhere the breakages of the weekend had already started. Ian Nolan had a shroud u-bolt failure on the first run which brought down his mast and Graham Blake�s alloy kicker wedge broke which put him out too.

Race two began in very little wind and, what with the sea state, this sorted out the men from the boys. Jerry, Tony and Dan showed us the way round the mark and it might have been a procession had Jerry not capsized at the leeward mark letting Eddie Gatehouse though for third and Steve McDonald for fourth.

By the time the fleet had made the WM in the third (amazingly, Bimbler Nolan had been ashore and fixed his rig in time to make the start), the wind had died completely and the RO sensibly abandoned, much to the relief of the back marker (embarrassed cough) who was already sneaking off home and to the frustration of The Bimbler.

What a difference a day makes! The promised wind and 2.5m swells had arrived and we were launched one-by-one, assisted by the safety rib, through the harbour entrance. The first of the planned four races eventually got underway in survival conditions with boats leaving the water off the crests of the now breaking waves. The troughs looked a lot further down than ten feet from where I was standing, but I am quite tall. (Actually I was curled up into a ball whimpering for my mother and turned for home halfway up the first beat after several capsizes).

Jerry led the way just ahead of Ian at the first mark with Dan and Eddie in a close battle behind them. The GPS tracks were showing over 10 knots upwind for these leading boats which is impressive in those sea conditions. Dan�s unfortunate capsize at the second leeward mark let Eddie through and he and Steve McDonald vied for third place throughout the race. After a number of place changes Jerry and Ian rounded the last leeward mark side by side still vying for the lead. At the top of the last beat Jerry�s trapeze ring snapped dumping him out of second place and into the swell with the broken stub of his tiller extension, effectively ending his race.  Eddie followed through to finish second closely followed by Stephen McDonald making a welcome and honourable appearance on the circuit, with Dan and Tony making up the fourth and fifth finishers. Racing was mercifully abandoned and all boats got home one way or another. 

Respect then to Ian Nolan for his race 3 win in almost impossible conditions. Oh he do like to be beside the seaside (as they sing in Norfolk). Tony Dencher was overall winner with two firsts and a fifth, Dan Azzopardi was pleased to come second (and to survive!) and Eddie Gatehouse just pipped Steve McDonald for bronze. All in all a bit of a tricky weekend!

Many thanks go to the circuit sponsors Gul for their continued support and to Paignton Sailing Club for being generous and friendly hosts and particularly to PRO Roger Gator (it must have been pretty grim on the committee boat on Sunday!) and Dale Giles for organising the event.

GPSactionReplay tracks at www.hamishgriffiths.com

Hamish Griffiths