Monday, March 7, 2011

CLIPPER 36

Boat: CLIPPER 36

Designer: Alfred E. Luders

More: CLIPPER 36 Specifications

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18ft Skiff Grand Prix - Hayling Island Overall


Author: Trish Jenkins

18ft Skiff Grand Prix 2000 off to a flying start

Skiff sailors racing in the first major event of the 'Sailsail.com 18ft Skiff
Grand Prix 2000' series, held at Hayling Island Sailing Club over the weekend
were greeted with very difficult weather conditions for today's racing,
making for an exciting finish to Round 1.

At a televised press briefing this morning, Rob Greenhalgh (who dropped from
second to third place after gear failure in yesterday's second race, and then
had to miss the third) was asked how he would approach today's racing, and
his response was "we'll just go out and win the first race, and take it on
from there". This brought laughter from those present, but, when he won the
first race as he had predicted, it began to look more and more likely that he
might overcome his disadvantage.

The weather pattern followed the forecast exactly, with occasional heavy
showers, interspersed with brief bursts of sunshine. More critical, however,
was the fact that the wind became light and variable from time to time, and
only "RMW Marine" and "White Stuff" were using their large rigs. The
remaining competitors had looked at the forecast of force 4 to 5 winds,
locally force 6, and decided that the small rig would be the appropriate one
for the day.

This set the scene for a tense battle between Rob Greenhalgh, Dan Johnson and
Jonny Meers on "RMW Marine" and national champions Victor Brellisford, James
Fawcett and Dave Smith on "White Stuff", while Tim Robinson, Grant Rollason
and Bruce Grant would be a serious threat if the wind came up as predicted.

The first race of the day saw "RMW Marine" and "White Stuff" quickly drawing
clear of the pack in a dwindling breeze, and it was the former that moved
from a slender initial advantage early in the race to a substantial lead at
the finish. "18 Footers League" finished third, quite a long way behind
'"White Stuff".

The variable breeze made even more of a nuisance of itself in the second
race, when all but the leaders, "RMW Marine" and 'White Stuff" again, found
themselves outside the time limit. What this did, though, was set up a
show-down between these two boats, as they went to the final race exactly
equal on points.

Fortunately, the breeze was now more substantial, and the two contenders for
the overall win again battled at the head of the fleet. As before, it was
"RMW Marine" that got the best of the duel, and it was their ability to
minimise their losses and make the most of tiny advantages throughout the day
that brought them a well-deserved victory. "18 Footers League" took third
place in the race, to ensure third overall.

This was an exciting and well-run event, and we now look forward to the three
remaining rounds at Datchet on 29/30 July, Sunderland on 19/20 August and
Southend on 2/3 September.

Overall results from six races with one discard:



More Information:

  • YachtsandYachting.com 18ft Skiff Page
    uk18footer.org

See also: CLIPPER 33 for sale