The 8th and final event of the Grand Prix series was held at Restronguet sailing Club in the beautiful setting within the Carrick Roads in Cornwall. Pre-event activities, starting on the Friday, were organised by Brian Phipps of Windsport and included land yachting on Perranporth Airfield in the morning and a Dart 18 coaching session on the water in the afternoon followed by a very welcomed barbeque in the evening!
Saturday dawned sunny but very light on wind, predicted to increase later in the day and more for the Sunday. Race officer and Dart 18 designer, Ian Fraser, got the 20 boat fleet off with only a slight delay but with the inevitable fluky conditions due to the light airs. The recently crowned World Champion, Tom Phipps, this time sailing solo, showed his class, posting wins in the first and third races and missing out in the second race due to a masterful tactical decision by the Netley Massif of Sean O’Conner and Luke Scott to tack off early and take first and second places in fine style. Tom deciding early that this was to be his discard! Sailing consistently were Mat Exon and Yvette Barnes from ‘way up North’ in Bridlington who posted two seconds and a third to take the lead into the club house for the curry on Saturday night.
Sunday was another beautiful day in paradise but this time with better wind, up to 18 knots of it. Tom struggling against the double handers in these conditions let his old sailing partner for 8 years, Jon Cook with crew Leah McHardy, take a win and two seconds in the three races, Tom unfortunately slipping to fifth in two races allowed Mat’s consistency to shine through with another first and third with his discard following a swim when the toestrap failed! Des and Fionnuala Barnes secured fourth overall with a second place in the last race in their new South African boat.
1st Mat Exon/Yvette Barnes, RYYC Bridlington – 11 points
2nd Tom Phipps, Restronguet SC – 13 points
3rd Jon Cook/Leah McHardy, Restronguet SC - 13 points
4th Des and Fionnuala Barnes, RYYC Bridlington – 19 Points
Click here for Full Results
Handicap Prizes:
1st Jim Carter/Jon Gosling, Starcross
2nd Paul Smith/Helen Jones, Netley
3rd Ian and Victoria Akhurst, Netley
| Last Modified: 22-Sep-2010 |