Midland Footy League - July 2014 Results
report by Peter Shepherd

Eight skippers arrived at Abington Park in Northampton for the fifth race in the Midland Footy Series despite todays weather forecast, which was far more gloomy than it actually turned out to be with most of the rain having passed us by the time we went into the first race. The wind was variable from extremely light through to strong gusts after some early experimentation most skippers opted for an A rig the gusts just being a little too strong to sustain the Justin rig.

Inspired by the recent Extreme 40 event in St Petersburg course setter Peter Shepherd went for a starboard reaching start, which meant you needed to hit the line running to get a good one, whether you went for the near mark which had the advantage of being closer to the first mark or nearer the middle where you were on the windward side and so took the breeze first was a tough decision.

If you could get out from under the rest of the fleet on the near mark then it paid dividends, otherwise the middle seemed to give a more consistent position into the first mark which was rounded to port, once again another short leg to a downwind gate, where if space permitted the starboard mark was the one to opt for, however gains could be made by going the other way provided you could make the upwind mark without the extra tack.

Twice around this short upwind downwind part of the course with a final pass through the downwind gate to a final leg for a finish, more than one skipper got mugged on the final leg which sometimes proved to be the trickiest one on the whole course.

And so finally we come to who did what, Peter Shepherd (65) was sailing his Fat Boy SliM for the first time in the competition it was meant for, he must be rueing not building it 4 months ago as he might now stand some sort of chance in the Dead Tree Trophy, anyway it went very well and he finished first another year older and it would seem slightly wiser.

David Wilkinson (46) sailing Iambus 2 was pleasantly surprised to find he had come second looking at the mixed bag on his scorecard you can see why he was surprised, Paul Risdale (53) wICE put in another solid performance for third to keep his lead in the Dead Tree Trophy.

Peter Jackson (30) Red Box came fourth unfortunately his improved results in the afternoon weren't enough to get him a top three finish.

Mike Ewart (36) Modified 1299 and Trevor Thomas (58) SliM finished on 54 points a piece with Mike taking 5th place on count back of second places. Indeed due to the short nature of each of the legs and the tricky wind conditions the field was sailing really close to one another throughout the event which kept everyone in with a shout. At the end of race 14 Sid Sims girded his loins, put on his poker face, asked about filling in the score card recorder and with a determined look in his eye and a steady hand on his transmitter promptly went on to win race 15. It would be fair to say Geoff Raygada struggled today his Cobra with it's Bermuda rig just not being quite up to the task however at least he wasn't always out the back of fleet and managed to finish most of the races without the need to resort to a position on the water being awarded.

With Peter Shepherd taking his first win of the series this time and the five event wins being split between four skippers overall it means that the MFL is almost certainly going to go down to the wire, if both discards are taken into consideration only two points separate the top four. Thanks to all of you for once again providing a very pleasant days sailing.

See you all next time for the sixth round of the MFL  which is also the Bassett Lowke Open and takes place on the 2nd August

Dead Tree Trophy Competition

1st Paul Risdale (53) Wice - 188 pts

2nd Peter Jackson   (30) Red Box  -144 pts

3rd Peter Shepherd (65) Razor 3 - 139 pts

4th Tim Lees (93) Puma 305 - 83 pts

5th Richard Sturt (03)Razor 3 - 43 pts

6th Geoff Raygada (25) Cobra - 42 pts

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y
1	Midland Footy League				Abington Park MYC
2	Score Card
3	5th July 2014				Race																	Discards			Final
4	Pos	Name	Hull	No	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Total	1	2	3	Total
5	1	Peter Shepherd	Fat Boy Slim	65	1	1	1	4	1	5	1	4	1	1	1	2	1	5	5	1	35	5	5	5	20
6	2	David Wilkinson	Iambus	46	5	5	4	1	2	3	3	7	2	3	7	3	4	1	6	2	58	7	7	6	38
7	3	Paul Risdale	Wice	53	3	3	3	2	3	1	7	2	4	5	4	6	6	3	4	5	61	7	6	6	42
8	4	Peter Jackson	Red Box	30	6	6	7	6	5	2	4	1	7	2	5	1	7	2	3	3	67	7	7	7	46
9	5	Mike Ewart	1299 Mod	36	2	4	2	9	6	7	2	3	3	7	6	7	2	4	7	6	77	9	7	7	54
10	6	Trevor Thomas	Slim	58	4	2	5	3	4	4	8	6	8	4	3	5	5	8	2	7	78	8	8	8	54
11	7	Sid Sims	Iambus	05	7	8	6	5	7	6	6	5	6	6	2	4	3	7	1	4	83	8	7	7	61
12	8	Geoff Raygada	Cobra	25	8	7	8	9	8	8	5	8	5	8	8	8	8	6	8	8	120	9	8	8	95