A healthy visiting fleet of 11 boats, 4 from Chase SC, joined the 4 local boats for the opening event of the year as Lightning 368 sailors again ventured marginally across the border into Wales.
The day dawned on a bright, sunny morning, with very little breeze and when the breeze did come it was often from a different direction. This caused great fun for the race officers to set a course, but they got us under way for one race before a picnic lunch in the glorious sunshine and two back to back races after lunch.
Going into the last race, Duncan held top spot but anyone, Simon, Ian, Mark or Jeremy could steal it by a win in this race. What started as a port reach off the line soon became a starboard fetch and the boats on the right, Ceri James and Tony Jacks soon headed off into a good lead with Duncan and Caroline in hot pursuit.
Seeing there might be another rafting session as boats tried to tack on port ahead of starboard boats Simon decided to sail well past the mark and tack well clear. This tactic worked and gave him the lead ahead of Tony, however the final run/reach, beat/run to the final mark was stressful trying to cover Tony but Simon held on to take the win, whilst Caroline got inside Tony on the last mark to come home second and Duncan fourth.
This was enough for Simon Hopkins to defend the Shotwick Open Meeting title, albeit in completely different conditions ahead of Duncan Cheshire, with local Jeremy Cooper coming home third. First Lady was Caroline Hollier in fourth and first Junior Elanwy Hopkins.
Overall Results:
Pos Sail No Helm Club R1 R2 R3 Pts
1st 428 Simon Hopkins Up River YC 2 ‑6 1 3
2nd 104 Duncan Cheshire Winsford Flash SC 3 1 ‑4 4
3rd 410 Jeremy Cooper Shotwick SC 1 ‑7 5 6
4th 438 Caroline Hollier West Oxfordshire SC ‑6 4 2 6
5th 331 Mark Heaton Shotwick SC 4 2 ‑6 6
6th 444 Tony Jacks Bartley SC 5 ‑12 3 8
7th 441 Ian Ranson Bolton SC ‑8 3 8 11
8th 407 Bryan Westley Aldridge SC ‑10 5 7 12
9th 87 Ceri James Shotwick SC 7 8 ‑9 15
10th 417 Jason Gallagher Denholme SC 9 10 (DNF) 19
11th 228 Steve Ashton Shotwick SC ‑13 9 11 20
12th 402 Stephen Hodgson Denholme SC ‑11 11 10 21
13th 145 Allison Hopkins Chase SC ‑14 13 12 25
14th 175 Spencer Hopkins Chase SC 12 ‑14 13 25
15th 167 Elanwy Hopkins Chase SC ‑15 15 14 29
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