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Cokayne takes Phantom open at Staunton Harold

22 Phantoms including a large number of new faces made the trip to Staunton Harold Sailing Club for the first Northern Travellers event of the year.

With varied and shifty winds the race officer set a course to use the majority of the water and the fleet got away first time with a single recall being sounded. Despite some close racing John Wayling and Andrew Elliott managed to break away from the fleet closely pursued by Brett Cokayne and Pete Evans, with the beats resembling a game of Snakes and Ladders, Wayling made the best of the conditions to lead over the finish line only to be greeted by silence having been OCS thus gifting the win to Elliott with Cokayne in second.

With the second race starting back to back, late arrival Peter White and Ian Smith made the best of the start with Smith leading closely followed by White. With Wayling, Elliott and Gordon Banning in the chasing pack Elliott was forced to take a penalty leaving Wayling and White out in front. As the finish approached Elliott was able to chase down White to take second in the closing legs of the race. Following break for lunch the third race started in similar conditions Evans got the best of the start to lead round the first mark chased by White, Wayling and Elliott, as the race progresses Evans was overhauled leaving the other three to battle for the lead and potentially the overall win.

It is rumoured that the distant rattle of the bar shutters marking the imminent availability of Lager suitably distracted the leading three who proceeded to sail to the wrong windward mark! Cokayne using the benefit of local knowledge led the remainder of the fleet round the correct mark being closely followed by Gordon Banning and a recovering Evans. The leading three were unable to recover the distance, leaving Cokayne to take the win closely followed by Banning and Evans, giving Cokayne the regatta on count back and leaving Elliott with the consolation that it was a Red Eye 1-2 and Wayling with the consolation that the Carlsberg was of the Export variety.

Standby the local chandler for a rush on chinagraph pencils!

Results

1 Brett Cokayne Staunton Harold SC
2 Andrew Elliott Rotherham SC
3 Peter Evans
4 Gordon Banning Haversham SC
5 John Wayling Northampton SC