Successful Bermuda

Jones/Elliott win the latest International 14 racing at Itchenor Sailing Club

18 International 14s gathered on Sunday 5 July in Hayling Bay for the Royal Bermuda Trophy run by Itchenor Sailing Club. This surprisingly named trophy was donated by “Shorty” de Forest Trimingham a successful Bermudan 14 sailor of the 1950s who was the first overseas winner of the Prince of Wales Cup. This year the weather had lived up to the name with 15-18 knots of breeze and bright sunshine.

The first race saw some of the competitors too eager to get started with a general recall catching several boats. Martin Jones and Zeb Elliot started behind the bulk of the pack on port but where then well placed to take advantage of a right shift on the first beat and lead at the top mark. It was a lead they were to hold until the finish despite the best efforts of the pursuing pack. Tom Heywood and Ed Clay took second and the fast finishing pair of Andy and Tom Partington in their new ‘Pickled egg’ design, who had had to go back at the start grabbed third.

At the second start Andy Fitzgerald and Harvey Hillary’s well judged/borderline (depending on who you asked) port flyer launched them to the right hand side, but it was the boats on the left and middle who came off best with Mark Upton-Brown and Phil Kennard taking advantage of a serious height mode in their M12 to lead around the top mark from Jones/Elliot, Charlie Duchesne and Louise Hickey and Heywood/Clay. The course was traditional triangle sausages with two reaching legs on the triangles. In any breeze 14’s have very limited angle they can carry kites through – which is only slightly increased by the skill and number of pies eaten by the crew. This made the reaching legs a difficult judgement call – hoist too early and you have to drop to make the mark and then pull off the dreaded white sail gybe. Hoist too late and you lose ground to those who have sailed less distance inside.

The first reach was a tight one with all boats reaching high under 2 sails and delaying the hoist. Heywood and Clay managed to roll Duchesne and Hickey before the hoist and by the bottom mark the leading three boats were within a few lengths of each other. Jones and Elliot struggled for height upwind compared to the other two and by the top mark had dropped to third with Heywood and Clay rounding just behind Upton-Brown/ Kennard at the top mark. Down the run Heywood and Clay rolled over the top and gybed first onto the layline for the bottom mark. The boat on boat tactics of the leading pair had let Jones and Elliot back in and they rounded the bottom mark in second. Heywood and Clay coped with the pressure for a ‘triangle’ but then choked and fell in on a tack. A quick recovery saw them still just ahead of Upton-Brown and Kennard with Jones and Elliot a boat length behind. Another capsize on the gybe saw Heywood and Clay lose the lead and contact with the leading pair. From here Upton-Brown and Kennard extended from Jones and Elliot who knew a second would win the regatta and Heywood/Clay just managed to catch the ever reliable Robin and Martin Pascal for 3rd.

Results
1 GBR1538 Martin Jones, Zeb Elliot 3
2 GBR1484 Tom Heywood, Ed Clay 5
3 GBR1496 Robin Pascal, Martin Pascal 9
4 GBR1526 Mark Upton-Brown, Phil Kennard 10
5 GBR1532 Andy Fitzgerald, Harvey Hillary 11
6 GBR1495 Charlie Duchesne, Louise Hickey 14