34 Boats arrived in glorious sunshine at Grafham Water Sailing Club for the Gill Flying Fifteen Inland Championships on 28^th/29^th May. The fleet included boats from Dublin and County Antrim who made the journey across the Irish sea (great effort guys!) and from up and down the country to race at one of the best inland venues in the UK.

The boats ranged from the beautiful and exquisitely maintained “617” and “817” to the pretty much brand new “4102”. As a qualifying event for the World championships next year in Freemantle, enthusiasm was running high with the whole fleet launched early and ready for the first start.

The forecast for Saturday was light, northerly breezes and as the fleet assembled in the starting area at the west end of the reservoir, the wind was settling at 7-10 knots. Although the sailing instructions gave options for 3 different courses, OODs Nigel Denchfield and Phil Bevan had already advised during the briefing that windward-leeward would be the default option for lighter breeze. Keen to lay down an early marker, Ian Pinnell and Ian Cadwallader led the fleet at the first windward mark of race 1 and despite some snakes and ladders managed to secure their first bullet from Draycote pair Simon Patterson & Simon Thompson. Race 2 saw another Draycote pairing at the front of the fleet, this time Jeremy Davy & Martin Huett picking their way through the shifts and patches of breeze to take the second race from Justin Waples and Jackie McKellar in second and Richard Lovering and Matt Alvarado third.

By race 3, the OOD began to lose patience with the fleet’s over-enthusiastic starting habits and promptly produced the black flag after the first recall. 4 boats were sent ashore for early pasta before the fleet finally got away at the 4^th attempt. Pinnell & Cadwallader made the most of the strongest wind conditions of the day to take their second race win, getting past Charles & Charlie Apthorp at the end of the last beat with GP14 maestros Andy Tunnicliffe & Andy Smith completing the top three.  (Interesting fact from the Race Officer- one boat he never spotted on the start line before the gun was Ian Pinnell/Ian Cadwallader’s…..mmmmmm…might be something in that !)

Sunday’s forecast was for a slightly stronger 8-15 knots and a similar northerly direction. And in fact it was blowing 20 knots straight out of north as the fleet launched. First out of the blocks were Richard Lovering and Matt Alvarado with Shane MacCarthy and Adam Froggart second and the ever consistent Pinnell and Cadwallader 3^rd. Race 5 produced yet another different race winner - Burghfield Sailing Club’s Ian Linder & Kevin Sweetman sailing off into the distance with the Apthorps holding off MacCarthy and Froggart for second. A 5^th place for Pinnell & Cadwallader was enough for them to secure the title with a race to spare and never ones to turn down an opportunity for an early finish, they headed ashore to rehearse their speeches and do their makeup. Meanwhile back out on course the wind was getting tricky to read. Huge shifts and big pressure differences were producing massive gains and losses throughout the fleet. Lovering and Alvarado seemed to have it mastered though, winning the final race from Hamish McKay and Adam Lawson. Crucially this second race win for the Hayling island duo was enough for them to secure overall on countback from Jeremy Davy & Martin Huet who had to settle for third overall on this occasion.
The classic boats had great racing on day one, but with the strong northerlies the two older boats decided not to launch, Mark Greer and Andrew Connellan from Middle Nene taking the overall win.
In the silvers, Jordan Aspin and Jason Benn in 3130 took the top spot.

Quote of the day from one of the competitors between races “Loving the Flying 15….fantastic racing”
Huge thanks to everyone involved who made the event happen including the Race Officers Nigel Denchfield, Phil Bevan and their whole team, and also the sometimes unsung heroes like Andy the Coxswain who got all 34 FFs on and off the water in double quick time.

Prizes were kindly sponsored by Gill and winning helm Ian Pinnell thanked Grafham Water Sailing Club, the race team and all the onshore helpers for a really enjoyable weekends racing.

More photographs of the event can be viewed at https://8573832.tifmember.com

Report by Shane MacCarthy and Simon Kneller

Photographs Copyright- Paul Sanwell/OPP - All copyright retained by OP Photography. No resale or free provision to any third party allowed. 


 

Rank	Fleet	Class	Sail_number	Division	Helms_Name	Crews_Name	Sailing_Club	Rating	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Total	Nett
1st	Open	Flying 15	4096	Red	Ian Pinnell	Ian Cadwallader	Hayling Island Sailing Club	1021	1.0	5.0	1.0	3.0	5.0	(36.0 DNC)	51.0	15.0
2nd	Open	Flying 15	4002	Red	Richard Lovering	Matt Alvarado	Hayling Island Sailing Club/WYC	1021	7.0	3.0	(36.0 BFD)	1.0	7.0	1.0	55.0	19.0
3rd	Open	Flying 15	3760	Red	Jeremy Davy	Martin Huett	Draycote Water Sailing Club	1021	4.0	1.0	5.0	(10.0)	6.0	3.0	29.0	19.0
4th	Open	Flying 15	4085	Red	Shane MacCarthy	Adam Froggart	Greystone Sailing Club	1021	9.0	6.0	4.0	2.0	3.0	(36.0 DNF)	60.0	24.0
5th	Open	Flying 15	4089	Red	Hamish Mackay	Andrew Lawson	Royal Thames Yacht Club/Hayling Island S	1021	5.0	4.0	9.0	5.0	(19.0)	2.0	44.0	25.0
6th	Open	Flying 15	4004	Red	Charles Apthorp	Charlie Apthorp	Hayling Island Sailing Club	1021	12.0	(14.0)	2.0	4.0	2.0	8.0	42.0	28.0
7th	Open	Flying 15	3851	Blue	Ian Linder	Kevin Sweetman	Burghfield Sailing Club	1021	6.0	8.0	7.0	(16.0)	1.0	11.0	49.0	33.0
8th	Open	Flying 15	4102	Red	Andy Tunnicliffe	Andy Smith	Bassenthwaite Sailing Club	1021	11.0	(36.0 UFD)	3.0	7.0	9.0	5.0	71.0	35.0
9th	Open	Flying 15	4094	Red	John Hanson	Helen Selden	Datchet Water Sailing Club	1021	10.0	9.0	10.0	(14.0)	4.0	6.0	53.0	39.0
10th	Open	Flying 15	4083	Red	John Lavery	Alan Green	National Yacht Club	1021	8.0	7.0	6.0	6.0	14.0	(15.0)	56.0	41.0
11th	Open	Flying 15	4033	Red	Justin Waples	Jackie Mckellar	RCYC/RHYC	1021	13.0	2.0	(14.0)	11.0	10.0	13.0	63.0	49.0
12th	Open	Flying 15	4024	Red	Simon Kneller	Ashley Painter	Grafham Water Sailing Club	1021	(26.0)	13.0	11.0	12.0	17.0	7.0	86.0	60.0
13th	Open	Flying 15	4091	Blue	Jeremy Arnold	Keith Jamieson	Notts County Sailing Club	1021	15.0	(19.0)	19.0	8.0	11.0	10.0	82.0	63.0
14th	Open	Flying 15	4080	Red	Simon Patterson	Simon Thompson	Draycote Water Sailing Club	1021	2.0	11.0	(36.0 BFD)	21.0	22.0	12.0	104.0	68.0
15th	Open	Flying 15	4069	Blue	Bill Chard	Josh Preater	Chew Valley Lake Sailing Club	1021	14.0	10.0	12.0	19.0	(20.0)	14.0	89.0	69.0
16th	Open	Flying 15	4044	Blue	Richard Hope	Mike Stenson	Draycote Water Sailing Club	1021	19.0	(20.0)	13.0	9.0	18.0	16.0	95.0	75.0
17th	Open	Flying 15	4030	Blue	Alistair Stevenson	David Culpan	Datchet Water Sailing Club	1021	28.0	(29.0)	8.0	13.0	15.0	17.0	110.0	81.0
18th	Open	Flying 15	4082	Red	Terry Scutcher	Chris Hewkin	Dubai Offshore Sailing Club/Burton/Shotl	1021	3.0	(36.0 UFD)	36.0 BFD	26.0	13.0	4.0	118.0	82.0
19th	Open	Flying 15	3794	Blue	David Philpott	Graham Wadeley	Grafham Water Sailing Club	1021	23.0	17.0	(36.0 BFD)	25.0	8.0	18.0	127.0	91.0
20th	Open	Flying 15 Silver	3726	Blue	Duncan Grindley	Jon Mortimer	Grafham Water Sailing Club	1036	21.0	(24.0)	16.0	24.0	12.0	20.0	117.0	93.0
21st	Open	Flying 15	4084	Blue	Tim O'Brien	Pip Noon	Grafham Water Sailing Club	1021	17.0	12.0	18.0	(27.0)	23.0	24.0	121.0	94.0
22nd	Open	Flying 15	3969	Green	Peter Card	Stephen Card	Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club	1021	20.0	16.0	17.0	18.0	24.0	(36.0 DNC)	131.0	95.0
23rd	Open	Flying 15	3703	Green	Julian Metherell	Harry Blowers	Grafham Water Sailing Club	1021	16.0	(36.0 UFD)	22.0	22.0	16.0	21.0	133.0	97.0
24th	Open	Flying 15	4027	Blue	Michael Clapp	Howard Shawyer	Parkstone/Datchet Water Sailing Club	1021	22.0	22.0	15.0	20.0	(26.0)	19.0	124.0	98.0
25th	Open	Flying 15	4042	Blue	Geoff Floyd	Colin Gilbert	Grafham Water Sailing Club	1021	18.0	26.0	(36.0 BFD)	17.0	31.0	9.0	137.0	101.0
26th	Open	Flying 15	4097	Green	Tony Gaffney	Raymond Flanagan	Draycote Water Sailing Club	1021	(29.0)	27.0	25.0	15.0	29.0	25.0	150.0	121.0
27th	Open	Flying 15	3873	Blue	Neil Bartholomey	Tom Vasey	Middle Nene Sailing Club	1021	(32.0)	31.0	23.0	23.0	21.0	23.0	153.0	121.0
28th	Open	Flying 15	4041	Blue	Simon Cooper	Alastair Cooper	Bewl Sailing Association	1021	27.0	15.0	26.0	(28.0)	28.0	26.0	150.0	122.0
29th	Open	Flying 15	3937	Blue	Richard Major	John Aston	Grafham Water Sailing Club	1021	(30.0)	30.0	27.0	30.0	25.0	22.0	164.0	134.0
30th	Open	Flying 15	3536	Green	Angus Scott	Jeremy Scott	Datchet Water Sailing Club	1021	24.0	28.0	(36.0 DNF)	29.0	27.0	28.0	172.0	136.0
31st	Classic	Flying 15 Classic	2433	Blue	Mark Greer	Andrew Connellan	Middle Nene Sailing Club	1036	(34.0)	23.0	28.0	31.0	30.0	27.0	173.0	139.0
32nd	Classic	Flying 15 Classic	817	Blue	Bryan Willis	John McPeake	County Antrim Yacht Club	1036	25.0	25.0	21.0	(36.0 DNC)	36.0 DNC	36.0 DNC	179.0	143.0
33rd	Classic	Flying 15 Classic	617	Blue	Graham Lamond	Rachel Lamond	Ripon Sailing Club	1036	31.0	18.0	24.0	(36.0 DNC)	36.0 DNC	36.0 DNC	181.0	145.0
34th	Silver	Flying 15 Silver	3130	Green	Jordan Aspin	Jason Benn	Sir John Fisher Sailing Club	1036	33.0	21.0	20.0	(36.0 DNC)	36.0 DNC	36.0 DNC	182.0	146.0
35th	Open	Flying 15	4012	Blue	Jonathan Knight	Trish Knight	Grafham Water Sailing Club	1021	(36.0 DNC)	36.0 DNC	36.0 DNC	36.0 DNC	36.0 DNC	36.0 DNC	216.0	180.0