Racing Committee on 18 Nov 2009 12:48 am
BUCS Fleet Racing
Next was the first BUCS event of the year in the form of the fleet racing. We sent 4 boats in the for of George Yeoman and Georgie Akin-Smith in the Firefly fleet, Ben Crompton and Tom Altmann in an RS200 and Doug Conway in a Phantom in the handicap fleet and Ed Bates and Jamie Bridgefoot in the Laser 2s.
With a very high standard of sailing all fleets and the shifty gusty conditions of Queen Mary SC the racing was very hard for all competitors. This was shown especially in the handicap fleet where the top places were all taken by RS200s mostly sailed by current or ex Olympic development squad or national champions. After some issues (forgetting spinni pole and a trapeze harness) Ed and Jamie struggled to put a series together but finished on a massive high with a top ten and their best result of the week end. They finished 12th overall!
In the handicap fleet the top 3 were all separated by 4 points. Unfortunately none of these were
George and Georgie brought home Newcastle’s first gold medal of the campaign winning the firefly fleet with a solid last days results of 1,1,2 which led to them winning by 3 points from Tim Saxton of Exeter after a tough battle that lasted all week end.