Results / RS Fat Face Racing Circuit Eastborune Sovereign SC - 13/09/2003
Eastbourne Sovereign SC hosted the last RS700 Fat Face RS open sea event
over the weekend of the 13/14th of September.
A small but very competitive fleet of 8 boats took part and some
excellent close racing was enjoyed by all competitors in a light south
easterly breeze.
Race one got away bang on time. Leigh Albrecht served notice of what was
going to happen for the whole event and won the first race in light
marginal trapezing conditions followed by Jon Emmett and Andy Irons in
3rd spot.
Race 2 started in almost identical conditions, Andy Irons did well to win
the second race Jon Emmett showing good consistency in 2nd and Leigh
following up with a 3rd.
Race 3 started in much less wind, sub trapezing, the fleet were quite
tightly packed together, once again Andy was able to get his bow in front
and kept between the fleet and the marks, Jon popped in another 2nd and
Leigh again finished 3rd.
The fleet then went ashore with Andy as the overnight leader.
Sundays racing again started on time in slightly more wind from the
southeast and brilliant sunshine. Good downwind speed and technique were
to prove crucial to the outcome of this event. The racing was very close
with the whole fleet only a few seconds apart. Leigh showed good downwind
speed and won with Tony Freer carving his way to 2nd and Alex Koukourakis
from the home club finishing 3rd.
With the points gap narrowing between Andy and Leigh the next 2 races
were to prove pivotal. After a clean start the fleet split, the ones on
the left did a little better.
Leigh got ahead down wind and notched up his 3rd win with Andy 2nd and
Tony 3rd.
The all important last race got away without incident, The 2 local helms
of Alex Koukourakis and Dave Geal made the most of the left hand side of
the course and rounded 1st and 2nd leaving Andy and Leigh with some work
to do. At the half way stage Alex still had the lead but was being closed
down very quickly by Leigh. A couple of gybes later Leigh had gained the
lead and went onto win the last race and the meeting with Andy second
putting him in 2nd place overall. Alex did not slip any further and
finished 3rd.Jon Emmett did just enough to get 3rd overall.
With the series now complete it was notable how well the racing had been
run with no delays between races and the Race officer Peter Dives got
every race away on time.
The fleet will now move onto Rutland Water for the penultimate event of
the calendar the Inland Championships. Will the new faces at the front
put in a good performance again? Watch this space.
Dave Geal RS700 832
1 3 RS700 869 Leigh Albrecht QMSC 1 3 3 1 1 1 7.0
2 33 RS700 823 Andy Irons Bough Beech 3 1 1 5 2 2 9.0
3 4 RS700 839 Jon Emmett Weir Wood SC 2 2 2 6 7 6 18.0
4 9 RS700 766 Alex Koukourakis ESSC 8 4 5 3 4 3 19.0
5 34 RS700 822 Tony Freer Chew Vally 5 5 DNC 2 3 DNF 23.0
6 11 RS700 832 Dave Geal ESSC 7 7 6 4 5 4 26.0
7 28 RS700 861 Eddie Gatehouse Chichester YC 6 6 4 7 6 5 27.0
8 15 RS700 841 Jerry Wales QMSC 4 8 DNF DNC DNC DNC 36.0