Topper Open Meeting at Arun Youth Aqua Centre

by Roger Elliman 12 Jun 2001 22:30 NZST

The Arun Youth Aqua Centre hosted the second of three Topper Opens held in West Sussex on consecutive weekends. Attracting 7 visiting sailors this was the first Open hosted by the Centre and, for a number of it’s members, this was also the first event at this level of sailing, making good use of the Topper fleet recently acquired from Sport England Lottery and FSA funds. Conditions were forecast to be a Race Officer’s nightmare with light and variable winds however the North to North Westerly breeze F2-F4/5 led to gusty but ideal conditions to test the sailors and being an offshore breeze, flat water. Race officer Nick Elliman set a ‘P’ course with the 15 Toppers sailing towards the beach for the beat, with two laps per race, a challenging series of 5 races were completed.

In the first race in the more variable of the wind conditions to be experienced during the day Alain Sired (Stokes Bay) showed the fleet that he clearly meant business and having rounded the 1st mark in the lead was never seriously challenged, Adam Thompson and James Fenton coming respectively 2nd and 3rd. The second race followed much the same pattern but not before a major wind shift to the west during the starting sequence almost caused an abandoned start before it swung back in the last 2mins and settled. Alain again leading the fleet but this time Adam and James changed positions. All the time the northerly gusts were increasing in strength and for the third race of the morning the wind was now gusting to F5 at times causing a number of the sailors problems on the downwind leg of the course. Alain now had to work hard on the beats to keep Adam behind him and for the first time the domination of Alain, Adam and James was broken as Jessica Aldridge took third place.

After a barbeque lunch at the Centre the wind had stabilised at a north/north westerly direction and slightly less gusty than the morning but a steadyish F4. Following representations from the sailors over lunch the wing mark was lengthened to give a longer reach, the request for a longer downwind leg, but shorter beat, was unobtainable (!). With James having to prepare for exams the following day and not sailing in the afternoon the 4th race positions were up for everyone as the racing in the fleet behind the leading three was very tight. Alain again led the fleet with Adam the closest he was to reach Alain during the series, Anna Perkins leading the others home in third. The final race of the day led to the largest incident of the day. The fleet, except one, elected to start on port at the port end of the line behind the committee boat and Adam on starboard forced virtually the whole fleet onto the anchor lines of the committee boat...it did have soft sides! With the wind a steady F4 now Alain again led the fleet round closely followed by Fiona Stevens pushing Adam into third place.

With five straight wins out of five the winner was never in doubt with Alain claiming first prize for the series, second with three 2nds and a third place was Adam and third with 2nd, two 4ths and a 5th going to Fiona. Arun Youth Aqua Centre Chairman Roger Elliman presented the prizes and noted that many of the sailors would be competing at the NSSA regatta at Derwent in July as part of the WSSYSA team.

Overall Results: