|
August bank holiday weekend saw a fleet of six 12ft Skiffs travel to Paignton for the 3rd round of this year's Bartercard Cup series, which was run as part of Royal Torbay Week. With only 1 point separating the 2 leading boats in the series, this was set to be a hard-fought event, which certainly turned-out to be the case.
Day 1 saw broken sunshine and an 8-10kt breeze, but with a possibility of a strengthening sea breeze, and 3 back-to-back races making rig changes impossible, the teams had to consider their rig choice carefully. This saw a split decision, with Nice Action and CST Composites going for their No.1 rigs, and the rest of the fleet playing it safe with their No.2 rigs. The winds stayed light during the first 2 races, allowing Nice Action to scoot away to 2 wins on their big rigs. Gear failure in CST in the first race saw them retiring, leaving Design Source/Gladstone to pick up 2 second places. The wind built for the 3rd race, leaving Nice Action fighting with an over-powered No.1 rig, and allowing the boats on the No.2 rigs to get fully powered-up. Design Source/Gladstone won this race convincingly by almost a lap over Nice Action, showing the difference the right rig choice can make.
Day 2, and grey skies greeted the slightly tired and hung-over crews, for what was set to be a memorable day of really close racing. Slightly more wind than the previous day resulted in all the teams choosing their No.2 rigs, except CST who were forced to choose their 3rd rig as a result of the previous day's gear failure. All 3 races saw constant position changes within the fleet, with the lead changing between Design Source/Gladstone and Nice Action on virtually every lap. On the final lap, Design Source/Gladstone managed to break away from Nice Action to get the bullet. Race 2 saw a battle royal ensue between Design Source/Gladstone and Nice Action, with Design Source/Gladstone pulling away upwind, only to be caught and passed by Nice Action on each downwind leg. At the beginning of the final lap, both boats rounded the leeward mark together but at the top mark, Design Source/Gladstone had managed to pull a small gap, leaving Nice Action with a big hill to climb. On the final leg, Nice Action managed to soak down slightly lower than Design Source/Gladstone and gybe on top of them, enabling them to take line honours by a matter of feet, giving the VIP guests on the Bartercard Spectator Boat a very exciting afternoon. In the 3rd race, the top 2 boats again battled it out all the way round, but this time line honours went to Design Source/Gladstone following a swim by Nice Action during a kite drop. So at the end of day 2, Nice Action and Design Source/Gladstone were both on 7 points, with a 2nd place discard each.
Day 3 dawned to very grey skies and noticeably more breeze. Although Windguru was forecasting 11kts, Brixham SC were getting readings of over 20kts with big gusts of up to 30kts. After much contemplation all teams went for No.3 rigs, expecting a solid and building breeze out on the course. As it turned-out, the wind on the race course was not as strong as expected, meaning the boats were under-powered and really in need of their No.2 rigs. With a lighter crew weight, Nice Action romped away from Design Source/Gladstone in this marginal breeze. Realising that they had lost this race, and by staying on their 3 rig, would probably lose the final race also, Design Source/Gladstone took the brave move of binning the first race and heading back to the beach to do a super-fast rig change. Forty minutes later they were back on the start line for the final race, but unfortunately had just missed their starting window, meaning that they'd count a DNS, giving the event to Nice Action by just 1 point!
So the fleet now head to Datchet for the final round of the 2008 Bartercard Cup with Nice Action and Design Source/Gladstone in equal first place with 16 points each.
The 12ft Skiff fleet would like to thank everyone involved in organising and running Royal Torbay Week, and particularly the staff and members of Paignton SC for making the skiff fleet so welcome.
Final Results
| Place |
Team |
Helm |
Crew |
| 1st |
Nice Action |
Bob Clements |
Alan Atterbury |
| 2nd |
Design Source/Gladstone |
Chris Gandy |
Tom Vian |
| 3rd |
CST Composites |
Andy Lang |
Tom Gruitt |
| 4th |
Bartercard |
Simon Roberts |
Tim Noyce |
| 5th |
Team WB |
Stu Tinner |
Ratface |
| 6th |
Aquaskipper |
Neil Cardno |
Ken Scott-Brown |
To see the entire picture gallery from this event, click here
|
Nice Action "showing board"
Design Source on a "fly-past"
Simon & Noycey on Bartercard
CST Composites on their No.3 rig
|
