Narrow lake for first event

Hilliar and Jagger have won the opening RS400 circuit event of 2007

Despite the weekend forecast of gales and snow, 18 boats turned out for the opening event of the RS400 Fat Face circuit on 17-18 March and were greeted on Saturday by a fantastic 20-28 knots blowing straight down the lake.

After a general recall the first race got underway, with Paul and Mike Allen showing great upwind speed to lead at the first mark from Jonny Sinclair. Paul Hilliar and Stu Jagger then took the lead on the first downwind and began a four lap tussle with the Allens, the lead changing hands several times. While these leading two pulled away, the fleet required strong nerves because the narrow lake meant that at least five gybes were required on each downwind. Eventually Hilliar and Jagger held on to win from the Allens, followed by Mark Greaves and Alan Woosey.

For race two, Dave Exley got away to a storming start and led, closely followed by Mike Budd, the Allens and Hilliar and Jagger. While the boats behind him kept fighting with each other, Exley kept cool and never lost the lead. On the final downwind, the wind shifted and temporarily died, turning the leading pack inside out. The Allens and Budd lost out big time and Hilliar and Jagger came in second, ahead of Greaves and Woosey.

In the third race, Hilliar and Jagger led early but fell into a hole downwind, to the profit of Budd, who, together with the Allens, built a substantial lead over the pack. Eventually the Allens got past Budd to win and then with 25 metres to go, a mistake over the finishing line allowed Hilliar and Jagger to sneak into second, in front of Budd.

With Sunday’s combination of snow blizzards and gales, a wise decision was made to abandon racing, leaving Hilliar and Jagger as the winners from the Allens and Greaves and Woosey in third.

The RS400 Fat Face racing circuit now moves on to Queen Mary S.C. on the 31 March to 1 April. We look forward to more close and competitive racing.

Results:

Pos	Helm	R1	R2	R3	Tot
1	Paul Hilliar	1	2	2	5
2	Paul Allen	2	5	1	8
3	Mark Greaves	3	3	6	12
4	David Exley	8	1	5	14
5	J Sinclair	5	10	4	19
6	Nick Holt	4	7	8	19
7	Louise McKeand	7	4	9	20
8	Mike Budd	17	6	3	26
9	Hamish Gledhill	6	9	11	26
10	Gareth Williams	11	8	7	26
11	Bill Kenyon	10	12	10	32
12	Neil Peacock	12	11	12	35
13	Roy Thomason	9	13	15	37
14	Ben Biglin	17	14	14	45
15	Jon Smith	19	15	13	47
16	J George	17	17	16	50
17	Robert Wadge	13	19	19	51
18	Neil Skellam	19	19	17	55