International 14 Autumn Pint and Autumn Trophy at Itchenor Sailing Club

 Eleven boats arrived on Saturday morning for the Autumn pint, with teams having travelled up from Falmouth and a crew from the German fleet (Dennis Gehrlein and Lasse Neilandt) coming over for a first sail of their new boat, with previous owner Dan Holman showing them how the boat is set up and how to sail it fast round a race course.

The wind came in later than forecast, so the sailors launched in next to nothing and headed out into a building breeze, gambling their setups on where they thought the wind strength would build to.

The International 14 class had some great racing at Itchenor SC for the Autumn Trophy this Sunday with 3 races.

In the first race Andy Fitzgerald crewed by Rich Dobson led from the start, getting out of the tide first and slowly extending their lead, chased by Julian Pearson with Andy Tarboton and Olly Stopper with Nick Blevins.

For the second race the tide had stopped running so fast. Peter Crockford with Harry Kennedy spotted this first and rounded the top mark in the lead closely followed by the rest of the fleet. He held this until the leeward mark where he span out dropping the kite letting Liam Stackpole and Wayne Barnicoat through as well as creating an interesting hazard for the pursuing fleet. Liam was followed by Andy Fitz, Julian Pearson, and Katie Nurton, all of whom managed to get through him on the next beat. Positions remained the same for the last round with Andy first, Julian Pearson second and Katie Nurton third after a photo finish for 2nd and 3rd.

In Race 3 Julian Pearson port tacked the fleet and rounded the windward mark level with Andy Fitz, Andy then managed to open up downwind slightly. Positions stayed like this up the 2nd beat but Peter Bromley and Hugh Maclean gybed off on the 2nd run into more pressure and got through into 2nd holding that to the finish with Julian Pearson 3rd.

Autumn Trophy Results:

1st Andy Fitzgerald and Rich Dobson

2nd Julian Pearson and Andy Tarboton

3rd Peter Bromley and Hugh Maclean

Thanks must go to Itchenor Sailing Club for running some great racing.