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International 14 Open Meeting at Beer Sailing Club
Author: Zeb Elliot
As the American's noted at the World Championships last year any venue where the main street leads straight into the ocean has to be pretty special and sailing at Beer is certainly that. 22 International 14 arrived early Saturday morning for the first open water meeting of the season.
Unfortunately the high pressure system over Devon refused the budge and the sea breeze struggled to take hold and an all too familiar scenario from last years World Championships prevailed.
After a short postponement Sunday morning the wind came in from the South West and without delay the race officer was setup for five sprint races in a 10-15 knot SW wind. Colin Goodman sailing with Sam 'the pup' Gardener was on excellent form showing good all round pace he won three out of the five races to win the series. Slightly less consistent but also showing some excellent pace were Zeb Elliott and Tim Hancock in their new Holt sponsored Bieker 3 finishing second with two wins and two seconds. Third overall went to the local Scot Ian Teasdale sailing with Simon Hewson who were never far behind the leading pair.
Perhaps the most impressive performance of the day came from the race officer and his team who turned the racing around with minimal fuss or delay, finishing the tail enders at the closest turning mark there was no waiting between races just to make sure the crews were absolutely worn out
by the end of the day.
As ever the fourteeners are in pursuit of more speed and excitement and the there is much going on with the class. With new rules on jib measurement there are an increasing number of self tacking jibs appearing on the new boats which should help simplify the boat handling. But to counter this
over the coming year the world council has approved trials to experiment with increased width. This was instigated by Paul Bieker and the Americans who advocate moving out to 7'2" but some of the crazy Brits are already looking at moving out by as much as 10'. Watch this space!
More Information:
- YachtsandYachting.com International 14 Page
- Beer Sailing Club
See also: CSY 44 for sale
