Easter Tray

Itchenor SC hosts the annual International 14 gathering

For at least the last month every week end has been breezy and so it was no big surprise when the Easter Weekend brought ''light and variable'' winds for the first big open meeting of the 14, 2004 calendar, the Easter Tray at Itchenor SC in Chichester Harbour.

32 boats arrived on the start with 6 of these being launched for the first time this week or last week end. In these new boats are some old time 14ers such as Martin Jones, who won the POW in the 'one wire'days, and some newer faces such as Mike Lennon who has a new Morrison/RMW boat with absolutely every thing adjustable, well he is an FD sailor at heart! There was a welcome return by Peter Dann and Dominic Stanilauss in ''Frisky Biscuits'' as they had been off the water since ''Hairy Biscuits'' was sunk in a 'small' collision at the Europeans last year.

Ted Roose, the race officer on Friday was confronted by light winds and a strong spring tide so he sent the 14s on a 'classic' harbour race. Which involved all the high speed Skiff skills of short tacking on the fore deck, running aground and navigating Chi. Geoff Carveth and Adrian Murphy took and early lead which came and went with the huge shifts but some three hours after the start it was they who crossed the line first from James Fawcett and Dave Dobrijevic.

Saturday, saw a return to some more normal windward leeward racing and with an increasing wind during the day more fresh faces were seen at the front of the fleet. The first race was lead from the start by Fawcett/Dobrijevic however they had the 2 Richards (Lovering and Kent) snapping at their heels all the way around.Chips Howarth and Tim Hancock were also fighting it out for the lead until they unfortunately wrapped them selves around a 'withy post' whilst hoisting and ended their week end early. The second race followed a similar pattern with Fawcett starting well and maintaining his lead into the finish line.As they had predicted a light and variable force 2-3 it was quite a surprise for the racing to finish in force 4, as this meant one or two people were working hard to struggle through with pinned rigs in the wrong positions.

Going into Sunday morning it was clear that with a second and two firsts this would probably be Fawcett's week end and Sunday did not upset this prediction, with two more wins for Fawcett and Dobrijevic it was them who took home the Easter Tray this year:

Results:
1. James Fawcett and Dave Dobrijevic HISC
(Magic Marine) - Beiker 4, North Sails,Beiker Mast.
2. Geoff Carveth and Adrian HISC
(Ronstan) - Beiker 4, Pinnell and Bax, Beiker Mast.
3. Richard Lovering and Richard Kent HISC
(Hyde) - Morrison 10, Hyde,CST Mast.
4. Mark Upton Brown and JohnMckenna HISC
Morrison 10, Pinnell and Bax, Beiker Mast
5. Archie Massey and George Nurton ISC
Beiker 3, Pinnell and Bax (Big Head main), CST