Daventry Footy Open

 FURZTON LAKE

6th September 2014

This event had to be moved from Daventry  Country Park to Furzton Lake, Milton Keynes home of Two Islands RYC  because of an abundance of weed at Daventry, so whilst the venue was the same as the Gold Cup, and the wind direction was similar although it was very light throughout the day. The course could not have been more different.
Once again we set a stadium style course with short legs to keep the skippers on their toes. The start was definitely starboard biased and with the wind shifting around to a slightly more northerly direction later in the day it became the reaching start that was intended. The first mark was capable of being reached in one, more often from the end of the line away from the bank, it was taken to port followed by  a very short downwind leg into the gate near the bank. The next leg was shorter from the starboard side however it was a tight tack and with the Eastern Island coming into play sometimes it was advantageous to go the opposite side and come into the third mark on starboard. With the oncoming skippers possibly in the path of the leading boats you had to carefully pick where you went on the downwind leg from mark 3, however everyone coped well with the tacking boats holding their course and behaving impeccably.
Once again a decision had to be made which side to take the gate to get the best return from the short tacks to mark 5 which this time was taken to starboard, a run downwind  to a starboard rounding of Mark 6 proved to be the easiest leg of the course and welcome rest before the reach back up to the finish gate. This could be negotiated in one tack if you were lucky enough to get a helping hand from Mr Bernoulli and his wind off the bank.
The Abington Park Peters battled it out at the front, at times match racing each other rather than concentration on the fleet race, a competition they both enjoyed, Peter Shepherd 65 (Fat Boy Slim) finishing ahead of Peter Jackson 30 (Fat Boy Slim) although the points don't show how close the racing was and for a long time it could have gone either way.

 The two Fat Boys aside the real competition was at the back of the fleet with three boats bringing up the rear having a real ding dong of a battle, eventually Brian Hawkins 165 ICE won through over Sid Sims 05 Iambus, occasionally Geoff Raygada 25 Cobbler (mod cobra) was able to stick in there with them and upset the order.
David Wilkinson 46 started the day sailing a Back Bay Nipper although he requested a switch to his usual Iambus which was allowed by the assembled skippers, this was a shame because the Nipper looked like it was a useful type and I would have liked to see more of it on the water.

The top NovICE skipper was once again Mike Ewart 36 (1299) finishing 4th his rival in the overall competition two places ahead of Sid Sims 05 (Iambus) interestingly because of a quirk in the scoring system Sid has actually closed up on Mike and is still in with a chance of winning the competition needing only to finish no more than two places behind Mike in each of the remaining races to win the main Prize. 
Picture
Mike Ewart - Winner of the Novice prize.
Judging by the pictures of the event below it appears that we all had a most enjoyable days sailing, the next Open Footy Meeting is the Cadenhead Trophy hosted by Southwater Dabblers on Sunday 28th September 2014.
Dead Tree Trophy Competition 

1st Peter Jackson   (30) Red Box/Fat Boy Slim -242 pts

2nd Peter Shepherd (65) Razor3/Fat Boy Slim - 239 pts

3rd Paul Risdale (53) Wice - 188 pts

4th Geoff Raygada (25) Cobra - 130 pts

5th Tim Lees (93) Puma 305 - 83 pts

6th Richard Sturt (03)Razor 3 - 43 pts