B14s in Weymouth

Mixing it with the Ners in Weymouth

Twenty B14s were at the 9er open meeting held by Weymouth & Portland Sailing Academy over the weekend of the 8 - 9 May. Teams arrived on Saturday to see the kite and windsurfers in their element buzzing around the harbour, even so the race officer kept to the schedule and sent the fleet out for the midday start.

After launching and speeding towards the harbour wall, with some boats reaching terminal velocity, the fleet turned round and beat the race officer to the postponement flag.

After a short delay ashore the race officer sent the fleet out again, only four hardy teams braved getting into their cold wet wetsuits. Matt Searle and Rich Bell led the small but competitive fleet home, followed in 2nd by Tim Fells and Shaun Barber with Dave Hayes and Sean Dwyer in 3rd.

With the wind easing, two more teams launched for the last two races of the day. Tim and Shaun overhauled Matt & Rich in race 2 and passed Mark Barnes (Barnsie) and JB just before the finish line in race 3.

Sunday brought very different conditions with poor visibility, a strange lingering smell and a dull booming in the background; but enough about the fleets hangovers, at least the lighter weather brought the whole fleet out to play.

Race 4 saw Jono Pank and Rich Edwards maiden race in their new ship prove they could be quick out of the blocks to finish 4th, the ever consistent Dave & Sean won followed by Barnsie and JB and young guns Will Davies and Mike Robbins showing good downwind speed to finish third. Both Tim and Matt hit 49er traffic congestion to place them outside the top 5. Race 5 saw Jono and Richard power off to an unassailable lead, chased by Barnsie and JB, Will and Mike who were closely followed by Piers Lambert and Tim Bees. Tim and Shaun headed for an early shower after gear failure.

The final race, race 6, had Brightlingsea stamped all over it with the top three all from this strong Essex fleet. Chris Bines and Dave Gibbons put together a fine race and came home clear winners followed by Simon Hadley and Pete Nicholson and then Piers and Tim.

The overall scoring was close with 5 teams recording bullets over the weekend, hence it came down to consistency with the winners Barnsie and JB without a bullet but not outside the top 5 all regatta. Dave & Sean held 2nd and two points behind came Matt & Rich in 3rd.

Results:

1st Barnsie & JB ReadyCrest - 13 pts
2nd Dave Hayes & Sean Dwyer Seasure - 17 pts
3rd Matt Searle & Rich Bell - 19 pts
4th Mark Watts & Tim Rogers - 27 pts
5th Tim Fells & Shaun Barber - 31 pts