Phantom Inlands

Crispin wins on Grafham Water

42 Phantom athletes turned out at Grafham Water over the weekend of 17/18th July to contest the Inland Championships for 2004. The weather forecast was, unfortunately, correct with a pleasant but shifty 2-3 on Saturday and the square root of not very much on Sunday.

PRO Mike Beloe got things underway with three back-to-back races on a very humid Saturday. In Race 1 Will Gulliver and Phil Argent squeezed round on port ahead of Nick Beloe at the windward mark. Argent proceeded to hit the mark in all the action and put himself down the pan for the rest of the race. Defending champion Lawrence Crispin came through from 5th eventually taking the lead from Gulliver on the run and pulled out a sizeable lead, Beloe moved through to 2nd from Allen Burrell, Simon Childs and Gulliver.

Race 2 soon followed with Childs, the first to tack off onto port after the start, leading comfortably round the first mark followed by Argent, Andy Elliott and Crispin. With the beats becoming more unpredictable the easiest place to be was in front, and Childs opened up a healthy gap from Crispin and Elliott as the fleet spread right around the racecourse. Crispin gave Childs a final scare coming down the final run in more pressure, but it wasn’t quite enough, the finishing order being Childs, Crispin, Elliott, Argent and Beloe.

Race 3 saw a slight decrease in wind strength, but a great start saw Burrell and Gulliver lead the fleet round the top mark, Beloe, Childs and John Wayling (Tin Rig) followed. The race was really for the minor places as Burrell and Gulliver sailed away, Beloe held a comfortable 3rd with Childs holding off Crispin until a last beat blunder of heading for the wrong end of the finish line let him through.

All was close at the end of day 1 with Crispin just ahead of Childs, Beloe and Burrell, and an exhausted fleet hit the local pub for a Stella injection and philosophical discussion on Rule 42, expertly led by Kev Clarke and Chris Roberts.

Sunday dawned a little too bright and early for some, but things were looking decidedly calm. Eventually a race was started and Sunday arrival Jeff Vander Borght crossed the fleet from a lonely pin end as the breeze filled-in in patches. As the beat unwound Gulliver appeared from the right hand corner to lead comfortably from Vander Borght, Richard Parkin (wood hull!), Crispin and Childs. A triangle and sausage were ground out with Gulliver holding on to win from Parkin, Vander Borght, Childs and Crispin.

The lack of breeze then meant an early finish to the weekends sailing, leaving the top 4 places all separated by a point, Crispin just retaining the title from Gulliver, Childs, Beloe and Burrell, with Iain Stowe first Master in 11th. The weekend proved how close the racing continues to be throughout the fleet, and sets the scene for an interesting Nationals at Stone.

Overall Results

1 Lawrence Crispin Stone SC 7
2 Will Gulliver Northampton SC 8
3 Simon Childs GWSC 9
4 Nick Beloe Northampton SC 10
5 Allen Burrell Thorpe Bay SC 12