Cooke takes top spot

The second UK Moth GP event of the season took place in Bristol

The 26th and 27th of April saw the second Moth GP event of the season at Bristol Corinthian YC.

Bright sunshine and a beautiful 12-15 knot breeze and plenty of sunburn was the recipe for Saturday’s sailing with an impromptu foil school session from Bristol Mothie Mike Cooke. Foiling gybes and some windward/leewards were the order of the day, with a splash of video debriefing so we could all cheer on the best crashes.

Sunday had everyone sitting around waiting for the breeze to fill in, allowing some boat fettling and a GPS recovery session, after Poole Moth Squadron leader Rod Harris lost his during a swimming race, luckily he had some goggles in his car and it was retrieved from 15 feet down in surprisingly good working order! It was complaining that it couldn't find the satellites underwater though and was asking if it was indoors...

The breeze came in after lunch and started to settle, allowing race one in a good 15 knot wind. This gave Mike Cooke in his Axiom v4 the chance to stretch his legs and take a convincing win from Chris Anstead from Queen Mary in his Bladerider and Rod Harris in his Mistress 3 in third place.

The second race was sailed in a very patchy ten knot breeze, allowing for some big gains to be made by sailing around the moths that could be found parked in holes! Chris took the gauntlet, closely followed by Mike and these two traded places until the final run, where Alan Watson in his Prowler nearly foiled past them both. Mike got a lucky
puff and made a beeline for the leeward mark while the others were forced higher. A photo finish at the line saw Chris not quite laying and forced to tack and letting Alan through to second.

Results:

1-Mike Cooke 3191, Axiom v4, BCYC
2-Chris Anstead 3152, Bladerider, QMSC
3-Alan Watson 4091, Prowler, BCYC
4-Rod Harris 4092, Mistress 3, PYC