International 14 Autumn Pint and Autumn Trophy at Itchenor Sailing Club
by Hugh Maclean & Julian Pearson 29 Oct 2021 01:27 NZDT
23-24 October 2021
Autumn Pint on Saturday
Eleven boats arrived on Saturday morning for the Autumn pint, with teams having travelled up from Falmouth and a crew from the German fleet (Dennis Gehrlein and Lasse Neilandt) coming over for a first sail of their new boat, with previous owner Dan Holman showing them how the boat is set up and how to sail it fast round a race course.
The wind came in later than forecast, so the sailors launched in next to nothing and headed out into a building breeze, gambling their setups on where they thought the wind strength would build to.
Race 1 - A flooding tide and slight line bias led to a heavily congested Committee boat end of the start line that saw a few boats having to bail out at the last second and gybe around to start late. The first beat saw more pressure and a generous lift on the left hand side of the course which punished any boat that had tacked early to break away from the fleet.
Katie Nurton/Cameron Tweedle and Dan Holman/Lasse Neilandt were duking it out at the front with the visiting pair of Liam Stackpool/Wayne Barnicoat showing some real pace.
Andy Fitzgerald/Rich Dobson had a slow first lap but found their way over the course of the three laps, accelerating back through the fleet to finish 3rd.
Dan Holman was showing how quick his sold boat would go and took the first race win.
Race 2 - A more even start along the line was had by all with most boats looking for some clean air on starboard, but the experience of Fitzgerald/Dobson saw them threading through the lead boats with a Port flyer and aiming for the better breeze out to the right hand side of the course.
This time the pairing of Jock Calvert, helming for the old hand Harvey Hillary, recovered from their swim with the kite in the first race to show the fleet their true pace.
Places changed regularly in the mid fleet as a competitively matched group fought hard for every metre.
Fitzgerald/Dobson were no match for Clavert/Hillary following them in for second whilst Dan Holman (having swapped crew for Dennis Gehrlein) came through in third, Nurton /Tweedle just missing out in the top three this time around.
Race 3 - The breeze continued to build for race 3 with several crews decided to bow out, leaving a reduced fleet. With the tide now ebbing out at full flow boats on starboard all lined up late for the final start of the day with Pete Bromley and Hugh Maclean leading the pack in but giving Fitzgerald/Dobson clear space to nail another port hand flyer in clear air at the pin end. This was as close as anyone got as the pair showed everyone a clear pair if heels and sailed off to an easy victory.
Bromley/Maclean finally found their pace and had a close upwind battle up the first beat, reaching the top mark on the heels of Gehrlein/Neilandt with Stacpoole/Barnicoat just behind. Gehrlein/Neilandt sailing their boat together for the first time had great speed upwind and were looking good until an aggressive bear away in a gust at the windward mark saw an impressive pitchpole next to the windward mark, reducing the space between the windward mark and the shore line considerably and giving the rest of the fleet a tight bear away gap.
Bromley/Maclean got a clean hoist and accelerated away down the run whilst behind them a messy gybe on the downwind leg from Stacpoole/Barnicoat caused a capsize letting Phillip Mcdanell/Luke Boughton through for a comfortable third, with Bromley/Maclean second and Fitzgerald/Dobson first.
Autumn Trophy on Sunday
The International 14 class had some great racing at Itchenor SC for the Autumn Trophy this Sunday with 3 races.
In the first race Andy Fitzgerald crewed by Rich Dobson led from the start, getting out of the tide first and slowly extending their lead, chased by Julian Pearson with Andy Tarboton and Olly Stopper with Nick Blevins.
For the second race the tide had stopped running so fast. Peter Crockford with Harry Kennedy spotted this first and rounded the top mark in the lead closely followed by the rest of the fleet. He held this until the leeward mark where he span out dropping the kite letting Liam Stackpole and Wayne Barnicoat through as well as creating an interesting hazard for the pursuing fleet. Liam was followed by Andy Fitz, Julian Pearson, and Katie Nurton, all of whom managed to get through him on the next beat. Positions remained the same for the last round with Andy first, Julian Pearson second and Katie Nurton third after a photo finish for 2nd and 3rd.
In Race 3 Julian Pearson port tacked the fleet and rounded the windward mark level with Andy Fitz, Andy then managed to open up downwind slightly. Positions stayed like this up the 2nd beat but Peter Bromley and Hugh Maclean gybed off on the 2nd run into more pressure and got through into 2nd holding that to the finish with Julian Pearson 3rd.
Autumn Trophy Results:
1st Andy Fitzgerald and Rich Dobson
2nd Julian Pearson and Andy Tarboton
3rd Peter Bromley and Hugh Maclean
Thanks must go to Itchenor Sailing Club for running some great racing.