Results / RS Fat Face Racing Circuit Paignton SC - 21/06/2003

Very light winds were the predominant feature of the Paignton open on 21st/22nd June. As it happened there was no racing on the Sunday as thunderstorms contrived to send what little wind there was round in circles, and despite the race officers best efforts, setting a course was all but impossible. The previous day, racing half a mile out in Torbay, there was also a nasty "lop" on the water to challenge the competitors. The beat to the start area was promising and the fleet "wired" all the way out. However by the start of the first race, the wind was down to 6 or 7 knots, and by the first run, was as little as 5. Andy Irons had made a bolt to the front of the fleet and led by a considerable margin. However, heavyweight Andy White began as he meant to go on, confounding his opposition with his light wind pace, and he took the race with glee. Andy Peake managed to deprive Irons of the second place, and Steve Tylecote stole a fourth place. Race 2 and the wind was down even further. Newcomer this season, Alex Koukourakis emulated Irons performance in the previous race and was in a seemingly unassailable lead followed by Paul Bayliss who himself had some margin on the rest of the fleet. White was on a roll again though, and he charged down the last run to go from 4th to 2nd, and couldn't believe his luck when Koukourakis rounded up around the leeward mark rather than progressing onto the finish. Koukourakis spotted his mistake in time to secure second and Steve Tylecote recorded a third leaving Bayliss wondering exactly what he had to do to stop his attack of the slows. The answer to this question came in race 3. The wind had increased enough to get on the wire, and Andy Peake led closely followed by Bayliss, and these two had a race long tussle upwind and down, but weren't really challenged by anybody else. The deciding factor was a kite wrap on a gybe, with Peake just losing momentum and could only watch as Bayliss swept past to take the win. The ultra consistent Steve Tylecote was the best of the rest with Richard Rous scoring a fourth. With no sailing on Sunday and hence no discard, the final analysis showed Andy White only just winning, recovering to 7th in the last race to win by the smallest of margins over Tylecote. Bayliss was another point behind, with Peake taking 4th, having to carry a 10 to go with his two second places.