Victory for Durham and Hands

A report from the 29ers' Harken Grand Prix at Draycote Water

A good turnout of twenty five 29ers attended the fourth Harken Grand Prix hosted by Draycote Water at the weekend. For many sailors this would be the last event before they headed off to the 29er Worlds in Lake Garda.

The breeze was blowing over the hill and dumping onto the lake which made for very shifty and gusty sailing conditions with big gains and losses to be made on each leg. Alex Horlock and Tim Walton got off to a flying start and led for the whole race. Ben Clegg and Tim Linsell came in second.

inconsistent shifts and gusts remained for the second race which was won by Tom Durham and George Hand ( Zhik) followed by Phil Walker and John Mather ( Team Harken) with Adam Larvin and new crew Jane Furness in a very commendable third place.

It was a swap around at the top in the third race with Phil and John taking the win with Tom and George in second. Once again a different pairing stepped into the top three with Alex Mothersele and Hamish Ellis taking 3rd place.

The final race of the day was won by James Briggs and Chris Peel, followed closely by Phil and John with another new all girl boat entering the top three this time with Philly Gray and Jo Lucas.

Overnight Phil and John were winning with a two point lead over Tom and George and Adam and Jane 4 points behind second place.

Sunday once again had shifts of over 50 degrees which made working out which way to go upwind very hard. Consistency was proving to be the key to success but with such huge variances in wind direction and speed this was hard to come by. Tom and George managed to put their excellent boat speed to good use and posted and impressive scoreline being the most consistent boat on Sunday. This led them to victory even after a last minute charge by Phil and John after hitting the pin end and rafting up managed to round the windward mark 2nd but couldn’t quite catch Tom and George.

Overall Tom and George won, Phil and John were second and Alex Horlock and Tim Walton were third some 15 points behind 2nd place which shows how tricky the conditions were to master.

Results
1st Tom Durham & George Hand
2nd Phil Walker & John Mather
3rd Alex Horlock & Tim Walton
4th Adam Larvin & Jane Furness
5th Alex Mothersele & Hamish Ellis
6th Jean Furness & Jilly Darling (first Girls)
7th Philly Gray & Jo Lucas
8th James Briggs & Chris Peel
9th Sam Watson & Henry Collinson
10th Chris Matthews & Ed Gibbons