Merlins to the fore

As Mike Lennon is first among the foilers at Northampton SC's Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy

The wet and windy forecast gave way to a surprise light and dry day, which in the symmetrical double handed fleet best suited the Merlin Rockets. Glen Trusswell and Ollie trucked away with the silver ware from Alex Jackson and Fran Gifford who were consistent in second place. The first Non Merlin was a National Twelve (N3494) sailed by John Ibbotson and Charlotte Stewart (who both knew Steve Nicholson from their days at Tynemouth Sailing Club). They did well to battle through the dirty air of the faster boats to finish fourth in both races. First Fireball was Chips Howarth and Vyv Townend who impressed in their brand new boat.

Double-Handed Fleet
1st Merlin Rocket 3626 Glen Truswell and Olly Turner
2nd Merlin Rocket 3643 Alex Jackson and Fran Gifford
3rd National 12 3494 Jon Ibbotson and Charlotte Stewart
4th Fireball 15013 Chips Howarth and Vyv Townend
5th Merlin Rocket 3691 Mike Galvert and Chris Downham

The single handers had a good variety of boats including a large fleet of Solos headed by Jimmy Hunt, however it was Local Phantom sailor Nick Beloe who won race one and was consistent enough in race two to win overall, beating phantom star Andy Couch in the process. Tom Gillard in a Streaker showed his class to get into the prizes.

Single-Handed Fleet
1st Phantom 1170 Nick Beloe
2nd Phantom 1218 Simon Hawkes
3rd Phantom 1277 Andy Couch
4th Solo 4 Jim Hunt
5th Streaker 1661 Tom Gillard

1st Junior Optimist 5608 Arran Homan (Winner of the signed Ben Ainslie buoyancy aid)

The Asymmetrics suffered from a particularly light first race, despite which Pete Barton and Roz Allen showed what a well sailed Cherub can do and won ahead of local sailing luminary Dylan Fletcher and Alan Sign in their 49er.

Asymmetric Fleet
1st Cherub 2698 Peter Barton and Ross Allen
2nd 49er 45 Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign
3rd RS400 1251 Dave Jones and Lou Hoskin
4th International Canoe 284 Charlie Chandler

Foiling Fleet

The new Foiling Fleet, with the help by the occasional puff of breeze and a large amount of kinetic energy managed some impressive bursts of foiling speed with Mike Lennon the eventual winner sailing an International Moth beating Sam Pascoe 2nd in his RS600FF